


The Grand Siren

by Shrooboid313



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, malec - Fandom
Genre: Complete, Fun, Gay, M/M, Malec, Murder, Murder Mystery, Mystery, because everyone needs a bit of the gay, but I'm not saying who, elements of the gay, ish, people die, the
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-29
Updated: 2017-05-19
Packaged: 2018-10-12 16:09:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 38,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10494594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shrooboid313/pseuds/Shrooboid313
Summary: Set at an indeterminate point in the timeline, Magnus feels that Alec has been horrendously overworked and decides to take him on a once in a lifetime vacation on board the luxurious train The Grand Siren - with only a few bumps in the road, or tracks, rather.





	1. A Life of Excess

**Author's Note:**

> I had previously uploaded the first three chapters to this site, but due to something that came up I had to delete them. Now that I've finished much more of this fic, I can start uploading and updating this fully.
> 
> Hope you all enjoy, let me know what you think.

Chatter filled the room around Alec and Magnus as Magnus pulled a chair out for Alec. A smile fought its way onto Alec’s face as he took a seat and straightened out the black t-shirt he was wearing. Magnus took the seat opposite Alec.

“Thanks.” Alec said, doing his best to try and supress the smile and failing. A waitress walked over, handing a menu to the two and complimenting the glitter flowing through Magnus’ hair. A choice that Magnus deemed to be understated like Alec asked him to be. “So why this place, Magnus?” Alec asked as he looked over his menu and across the café Magnus had brought him to.

Fairy lights lined the floor between individual wrought iron tables with matching chairs that seated no more than four, spaced out perfectly to allow easy movement for all. The lights glowed in an ethereal loop changing from blue to purple to green and then back to blue. The room looked as if it was from another planet. With the sun having set an hour prior to the two arriving at the café, the café was lit with the fairy lights, candles on the tables and dim lights on the ceiling. The candle on their table wasn’t lit but with a snap of Magnus’ fingers it was.

“Because I wanted to treat you, Alexander.” Magnus purred. “After what you and all of your friends have been through, I figured that we could relax a little bit.” Magnus placed his menu down and gestured across the room. “And this seems like a pretty good start to me.”

“A good start?” Alec questioned. “You have more planned than this?”

“Of course I do.” Magnus said as he reached over the table and tugged at Alec’s black jacket. “Maybe something that involves you wearing a little more colour.” Alec averted his gaze, trying to supress another smile.

“You’re only wearing one colour right now, though.” Alec gestured towards the maroon suit Magnus was wearing.

“Okay, I’m going to stop you before this goes any further, that isn’t the point of why I brought you here.”

“Then what is?”

“Have you heard of a place called the Ashen Temple, Alexander?”

“I think so. I think I’ve read about it in one of the books in The Institute. Why?”

“Because I think it would be a good idea for us to take a trip together. And I thought that that could be the perfect place.” Alec squinted his eyes.

“Why there? Of all places?”

“Well I assume that you know that it’s in that old place, Nairon Town, stupidly named I know, as if it’s from a video game or something. But that’s not the point, the only way to get there is by taking a four-day train ride.”

Before Alec had the chance to respond, the waitress returned to the two and Magnus ordered for the both of them without objection from Alec. He ran a hand through his hair while Magnus ordered everything. The waitress told them that she would return shortly with their food as he placed two glasses and a wine bottle on the table.

“Alright.” Alec responded. “But if you know where it is, couldn’t we just portal there? You know, instead of spending four days on a train.”

“Because that would take the fun out of everything.” Magnus said as he poured the wine. The scent flooded out over the table. “I want us to take the train ride there.” Alec lifted his glass and took a sip before flinching at the taste.

“How do they expect someone to spend three days on a train, though?”

“Four bedrooms per carriage, five carriages. And only the richest, most affluent people are able to board.”

“So you want us to take a fancy train ride with fancy people to some fancy town?” Alec sighed. “That sounds nice, but how are we meant to get on? I hope you weren’t expecting me to be able to pay my way on.”

“Not at all, Alexander.” Magnus shrugged.

“Then what?”

“The most affluent are able to make their way on there. And after what you and your friends managed and by pulling a few favours I managed to get a couple of tickets for the next train.”

“I don’t really have a choice about this do I?” The smile worked its way back onto Alec’s face.

“Of course you do. I just figured schmoozing around on a fancy train for a week or so could do you good.”

“A week? I thought you said it was four days?” Alec started. “Wait, no- never mind. The train’s gotta get back as well.”

“That’s the part of all things that gets you? Not the affluent part?”

“Well, I- should it?” A flush of red began to creep over Alec’s face as Magnus smiled at him.

“You’re far more important than you think you are, Alexander. To me, to your friends and to people all over New York.”

Alec looked down at the table and rubbed a hand on his neck, over his block rune. The waitress returned, with two plates of food and placed them down in front of the couple. The rotation of the fairly lights bounced off the faces as the two ate with little talk. After Valentine, the quiet was welcome. Between chatter between diners and the low hum of cars from outside, there wasn’t much that could ruin the night.

Magnus led Alec out of the door after the pair finished up and paid. An ocean breeze blew onto the pier the pair were walking up, back towards the city. Alec pulled his jacket tighter as Magnus tightened his grip around the arm of his date.

“So you’ll go?” Magnus asked.

“Fine.” Alec smiled. “I guess it could be kind of nice.” He looked to Magnus. “Let’s take a train ride.”

“Wonderful. Then we have a couple of days to get ready. The train leaves this Sunday.”

“Okay. What should I bring?”

“We’re taking a train ride, Alexander. You don’t need to think about it that much, it’s not like we’re going to the North Pole.” Magnus’ tone became sarcastic. Alec sighed. “Alright. I’ll help you out if you need it.” Alec knew that that meant that Magnus was going to ‘help’ him whether he wanted him to or not. Not that he was about to complain about it, by any means.

“Alright.” The two looked at one another. “Now this might sound like a bit of a stupid question, but you could just portal on and off the train whenever you want, right? Like if we needed anything?”

“I could. But that would take the fun out of it, wouldn’t it?” Alec forced himself not to sigh a second time. “Anyway, it’s late, Alexander we should be getting back.” Magnus unlinked his arm from Alec’s and began waving his arms around. A portal opened up before the two once they were a safe distance from anyone noticing them. The two stepped through, out of the cold and into Magnus’ apartment.

\---

Alec stood on the platform alone, with a single suitcase before a grandiose train that was reminiscent of Magnus’ dress sense. Teeming with luxury and extravagance from merely the carriages and patrons of travel, Alec avoided making eye contact with anyone who walked past him as he waited for Magnus. Magnus gave him the time to be at the platform which Alec arrived at five minutes before. Ten minutes after, Alec was still waiting for Magnus. With it being a mundane train, neither Magnus nor Alec could simply portal their way to the train without raising suspicion or drawing attention to themselves.

A man dressed in a sharp suit and hat walked up to Alec.

“Sir, are you waiting to board the train?” The man asked. “Because if you are, you might want to get on soon, we’re leaving in ten minutes.”

“Uhh, yeah.” Alec answered. “I’m just waiting for someone to show up, they should be here soon.” Alec looked down to the bottom of the platform to see no sign of Magnus.

“Well, I hope they get here soon, or we’re leaving without them.” The man said before walking back onto the train.

Alec began to tap his foot as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialled Magnus’ number. Straight to voicemail. “Where are you, Magnus? The train is leaving in ten minutes and if you don’t get here we’re gonna miss it.”

“Well I’d better get here quickly, then.” Magnus said from behind, Alec. Causing him to turn to face the warlock, who looked more like Magnus than Alec had seen before. Everything looked to be silk, compared to the all-black covering Alec. “Is that what you’re wearing?” Magnus asked, with both hands clutched on a red suitcase either side of him. Alec crossed his arms and squinted at Magnus.

“Is th- why do you need two suitcases? How much stuff are you gonna need on the train?” Alec didn’t particularly understand why Magnus was questioning what he was wearing when it was always Magnus wearing the outlandish outfits. Why was Alec’s regular full black attire was what he had chosen. It was nothing compared to the tailor-made suit Magnus had come in.

“You never know, Alexander. I, personally, like to be prepared for all situations.” Magnus looked to the suitcase on his left, then the one on his right. “This should be alright for how long we’re going to be on board. Speaking of which,” Magnus gestured towards the nearest door and train carriage, “shall we?”

Magnus stepped up into the carriage with one of his cases as he pulled a pair of tickets from the pocket of his waistcoat and handed them to the same man who spoke to Alec moments before Magnus arrived. Alec looked down at the black shirt and jeans that he had was wearing and attempted to straighten out the creases in his shirt before sighing to himself. Magnus swayed as he beckoned Alec over to the carriage. He grabbed his own and Magnus’ second suitcase and dragged the two of them over to the carriage door.

“I’ve got our cabin.” Magnus smiled as he flashed a card towards Alec, the card read B-1. Carriage B, cabin 1. “Come on, let’s check out where we’ll be staying for the next few days.” Alec raised his eyebrows and sighed again.

“Why is this case so heavy? Did you pack bricks?” Alec questioned.

“Just some light reading material, or maybe a few spell books.”

“Why?”

“Just in case.” Alec sighed again and raised his hands in protest.

“Alright. Can we just go to our room? Drop of the bags?”

“Of course. I’d love to see whether this train is truly as lavish as I’ve heard.”

Magnus led Alec through carriages F, E and D. All as equally elegant as each other. Dark, wooden walls lined with golden inlays that acted as borders to every wall. A plush carpet bathed the floor in a soft red coat, easy on the feet and easy for the suitcases to roll over. The four doors to each of the cabins were a darker brown than the walls, with the gold inlay as the border. The two walked into carriage C, that opened up into a lounge and social area. Complete with dining tables, bar and kitchen on the far side of the carriage and dance an open floor on the side the two entered from.

“This place is amazing.” Alec noted. “Now I understand what you meant when you said only the richest people could get on here.”

“Isn’t it just?” Magnus revelled. “From what little we’ve seen, this is everything I could have hoped for and more. I only hope that our room is just as magnificent.” Alec smiled to himself listening to Magnus.

Through the door into carriage B that was equally as extravagant as the others. They passed each of the doors in turn B-4, B-3, B-2. They stopped in front of B-1, their room and home for the next few days. Magnus held to card down towards the door as a click sounded and the door unlocked. Alec thought to himself that it seemed a little odd that a train would have electronic locks for the doors, but didn’t think that it was really worth bringing up considering Magnus was doing essentially for him. And probably a little for himself as well.

“How long do you reckon we have until the train leaves?” Magnus asked.

“A guy told me that it was leaving like ten minutes before you turned up, so maybe like five more minutes. Not long, definitely.”

“What a shame.” Magnus sighed. “That isn’t nearly long enough.”

“Long enough?”

“Never mind, Alexander.” He smiled. “What do you think?” He asked, moving out of the doorway of the room.

The opulence and extravagance wasn’t restricted to the hallway, the bedroom was just as grand for the limited space. A spacious double bed commanded the middle of the room with pure white sheets, underneath an equally wide window that was covered by curtains that matched the red of the carpet of the hallway and the floor of the room. A writing white desk, with two drawers on the left hand of the underside, was screwed to the wall with an equally white chair that looked to be attached to the desk. And a closet built into the wall lined the opposing side of the room with plenty of room to stow all of a person’s clothes for a journey lasting several days.

“It’s marvellous, isn’t it?” Magnus asked.

“It is.” Alec replied slowly, surveying the walls and the furniture. “Everything you hoped it’d be?” He asked, turning to Magnus.

“Well, it’s not quite what I go for, but it was Mundane designed and a train, so I can hardly complain, can I?” Alec moved their cases down in front of the closet as Magnus straightened out his suit and turned to Alec. “What do you say we go meet some of our neighbours for the next few days?” Alec nodded in response.

The two walked out of their room and closed the door, the lock clicking behind them. They passed the B cabins back into carriage C. Magnus walked immediately past the kitchen stand and headed immediately towards the bar where the bartender stood talking to a blonde woman in a cyan halter dress as a woman dressed in a white uniform stood with her back against the bar. Alec looked closer towards him, to another bar that served food to see a chef tying her hair back into a tight ponytail. She winked at Alec as she finished tying her hair.

“Sorry, hun.” She said with a wink. “I’m can’t start serving anything until the train sets off and after the conductor makes his speech.”

“That’s okay, thank you.” Alec replied following Magnus’ footsteps.

“Hey, Magnus.” Magnus turned to face Alec, holding two martini glasses and offered one to Alec. “No thanks.” Magnus shrugged and handed the second glass to the woman in the halter dress as she thanked him and walked away.

“Everything okay?” He asked.

“Yeah, apparently, there’s gonna be a speech before we set off?” Magnus’ face lit up as Alec finished his sentence.

“Oh yes, of course! I completely forgot about that. The Conductor’s speech. He makes it at the beginning of every journey.”

A speaker crackled as a voice echoes throughout the carriage.

“Could all of our patrons please gather in carriage C for The Conductor’s speech before we depart, thank you.”

“Right on time.” Magnus said.

Patrons of the train began to filter their way into carriage C. The sheer variety of passengers coming into the lounge surprised Alec. He imagined that there would be more people like Magnus and more older people. But there were people who looked to have come from all walks of life, or at least, all walks of high society. Rich families with young children, rich elderly couples and more and more rich folk, all of which were dressed similarly to Magnus and the woman in the halter dress causing Alec to look down to his simplistic outfit choice. Alec remained next to Magnus as the crowd formed around them. The Conductor took his place atop a podium overlooking the entire carriage. He tightened his black suit jacket over his protruding stomach as he sucked his gut in and stroked his greying moustache.

“Esteemed patrons. Welcome aboard the Grand Siren, for those of you who do not know. The Grand Siren is the name of this train. If you are joining us for a journey for the next few days then that must mean you are an elite of some form or another. Today is the Grand Siren’s seventy third voyage and our total journey is due to last a week. The first official day of our journey being tomorrow, Monday. Providing everything goes to schedule, Wednesday evening we will be taking a brief break from travelling to re-stock and refuel in the snowy town of Araelia. During this brief stop, you may leave and take a look around Araelia if you so wish, but do be warned, you will only have a limited time to return to the train before we leave again. We wouldn’t want to leave any of you lovely folk behind.” The Conductor chuckled, receiving a light chuckle from a few of the audience members. He coughed before continuing. “Anyway, come Thursday afternoon we will arrive at our destination, Ash Town, home of the wonderful Ashen Temple. We will then begin the return trip back here, Saturday morning and ultimately arrive back here Sunday evening.” He clapped his hands together. “And for those of you who do not know me, just refer to me as The Conductor. Thank you for your time, ladies and gentlemen and I hope you enjoy your trip with us here on the Grand Siren.” The Conductor bowed his head to a wave of polite applause before he walked away towards the back of the train.

“That wasn’t as much as I had expected.” Magnus said, turning to Alec as the crowd began to disperse, returning to their rooms or wandering around the lounge. Several people headed over to the bar and took seats in the lounge, waiting for the waitress to take their orders.

“No kidding.” Alec said. “Hey, would you be okay with me heading back to the room? I want to sort out the bags a little. I feel a little… underdressed.” Magnus smiled at him. A warmth surged through Alec’s chest as Magnus pressed a hand against it.

“Of course, I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing you in something a little. Flashier.” Magnus leaned into Alec as the two of them embraced in a kiss. Alec closed his hand, took the room key. “I’ll see you later.” Alec walked away from Magnus, back to their room as Magnus walked back over to the bar and returned to the woman in the cyan halter dress.


	2. Dance in the Rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magnus wants to learn more about the woman he met at the bar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter then we will be getting to the content that wasn't previously posted. Until then, enjoy this.

'I wonder if Magnus knew that woman at the bar?' Alec thought to himself as he pressed the card to lock of his room, letting himself in. He flipped the light switch and lit the room. The sun had already outside and the darkness had set in over the train so Alec crawled over the bed to draw the curtains in the room. He wasn’t entirely sure what it was he was actually meaning when he told Magnus that he was going to sort the bags out.

He pushed Magnus’ bags further up against the closet and pulled his own forward, thinking that Magnus would probably want to sort his own bags out. There was no doubt that Magnus would properly sort out all of his bags at a later time and spread all his things around the small room they had for the week. Alec pulled his bag up onto the bed and unzipped it. There was a lot of dark colour. Blacks and dark blues coated the bag. Alec moved a few of the items and pulled out a dark blue dress shirt before looking down at the black jeans he was already wearing. These should be fine. He thought as pressed them down a little.

Alec moved over to in front of the mirror on one of the closet doors and looked into his reflection. He noticed that the bags under his eyes that he had noticed fairly recently had begun to fade and he was looking a lot better. Alec moved over away from the mirror and changed his black shirt into the dress shirt. Alec looked at his reflection on last time before heading back towards the door and exiting the room, after placing his bag back on the floor.

The sun set quickly once all the patrons of the Grand Siren had boarded. Alec noticed this once he walked out of his room and saw the scones that lined the walls of the carriage were all lit and the blinds over the windows had been pulled down. No light was coming through any of the blinds and when he peered behind one of the blinds he saw that the platform was completely dark, minus the lights of the vending machines on the platform. Even the electronic sign had been switched off. He thought it strange that if the Grand Siren was the only train that was leaving the platform that day that there was a need to get all of the passengers on board so early during the day when the train wasn’t going to leave until the evening. Even if The Conductor did need to give his speech, there was no real need to get the passengers on so early. Alec shook his head as he sighed and walked through the door into carriage C.

Much to his relief, only about twenty people were left in the carriage, the majority of the crowd had left and returned to their respective carriages. Alec looked over the entirety of the carriage and saw Magnus sat at a table for four with the woman in the cyan dress he was with before. His eyes met Alec’s and he waved him over to join them.

“Alec, you changed?” Magnus asked.

“Yeah.” Alec sighed. “I figured I probably should look a little nicer considering…” Alec gestured towards Magnus’ suit and the woman’s dress before taking a seat next to Magnus.

“This, by the way, is Thea.”

“Nice to meet you.” Alec said.

“You too.” Thea smiled.

“Thea and I were just having a lovely chat about the history of this train.”

“I was just saying, before you showed up, how much the train has changed since I last rode it.” Thea sighed to herself. “It must have been, oh, back on the forty-ninth journey it took which was about-“

“Forty-eight years back.” Magnus interrupted.

“Forty-eight years, but you don’t look- I mean, you’re not…” Alec stammered.

“Old?” Thea smiled.

“She’s a warlock, too, Alexander. Apparently she recognised me from somewhere.” Magnus turned from Alec to Thea. “Although, I can’t say I’ve ever seen you around before. And I’ve never even heard of you, before, which is pretty unusual.”

“I don’t usually spend too much time in one place.” She shrugged. “What can I say, I like travelling around, seeing different things.”

“Is that what brought you here?” Alec asked. “To the train?” Thea sighed again.

“No.” She looked down from the two men sat across from her, down at her nails – painted the same colour as her dress. “I have. I have something that I need to do in Ash Town. What about you two? Any special reason?” She seemed to choke a little on the word ‘special’.

“Alec has been busy recently, so I thought he could do with a little break. So here we are.” Magnus answered.

“Really? That simple?” She sighed as she twirled one of her auburn curls around a finger.

“What’s wrong?” Alec asked.

“Oh nothing, it’s just you two.” She said. “You’re sweet. Will you excuse me for a moment?” Thea stood up and straightened her dress down as she walked over to the bar and began to talk to the bartender.

“So, it’s not nothing, is it?” Alec asked Magnus. Magnus sighed. “Did I say something?”

“No, I doubt that it’s your fault, you barely said anything to her.” Magnus sighed again. “I’m also quite interesting in finding out how she made her way onto this train.” He turned to Alec. “You know, while you were gone I spoke to the bartender and he was telling me how some of the other patrons have made their way onto the train.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?”

“Obviously, a lot of them are on just because of sheer wealth. But he told me that one of the past patrons apparently made their way on board by saving The Conductor’s daughter from being run over. A doctor and her wife got on because the doctor performed surgery on The Conductor. I love these stories, at least, the ones that aren’t just wealth.”

A low rumbling made its way throughout the carriage and the rest of the train. The train was preparing to leave the station. The bartender placed both hands down on the bar as the rumbling intensified for a few brief moments before the train finally started moving. He released his grip once the train made a slow chug out of the station. Thea took a glass out of his hand before returning over to Magnus and Alec. She sighed before placing the glass down.

“Did I miss anything exciting?” She asked.

“We were just talking about the stories of the people who make their way onto the train. How they got on and why they’re travelling? Fascinating stuff.” Magnus answered.  
“I’m sure it is. Now then, boys, since we’re moving, I’m going to go and explore the train a little.” Thea said before pushing her chair back in and walking away from Alec and Magnus, over the dance floor and away into carriage D.

With the train moving, it was slowly running immediately out of the city and into an unpopulated area. The carriage slowly swayed from side to side in a calming motion. An elderly couple sat close to the kitchen and the bar leant their heads back in the plush red armchairs and close their eyes. The rhythm of the carriage was enough to send the tired to sleep. A few of the grand windows were opened near the chefs station as steam billowed up from a sizzling pan of noodles was cooking for two middle aged men sat across from one another at a table near the elderly couple.

“There’s something I gotta ask, Magnus. When, Thea mentioned the last time she was on this train. You mentioned it was like twenty years ago?”

“Yes, this train only runs once every other year.” Magnus said. “The fact that we made this journey is quite lucky. Especially at a time when you’re not busy, for once.”

“Why though? I realise that might make me sound childish, but you know what I mean.”

“Don’t worry, Alexander.” Magnus chuckled. “I think that it’s probably more of an image thing. The fact that it only runs every other year and only takes on a limited number of some of the most affluent people on board. I guess it’s just something that lets people say that they are the highest of the highest class.”

“Right.” Alec sighed. “Highest class.” Alec looked down the carriage at some of the other people on board. He noticed the elderly woman asleep in a red arm chair, her hair looked as if it had been recently styled and she was wearing an unnecessary amount of make-up for someone boarding a train. The necklace around her neck sparkled under the lights and looked more expensive than anything that Alec owned.

“That’s not to say that you won’t fit in, Alec.” Magnus said as he linked an arm around Alec’s. “Take a look at those women at the bar. They don’t exactly look like the same kind of people as that old woman asleep in that chair.” He looked at Alec. “Not everyone is as fancy as Sleeping Beauty over there.”

“I guess.” Alec smiled. “What about Thea? Think we’re gonna see her again?”

“Well, considering we’re all going to be on this train for a while, I’m sure we’ll run into everyone at least once. I would like to speak to her again, however. A warlock that I’ve not had the chance to talk to, yet. I’d like to see if she knows any good trade secrets. Plus, I’d like to know why she’s here.”

“We’ve been here less than twelve hours and you’ve already found something to do?” Alec asked. “Well if you don’t mind, I’m gonna go lie down. I don’t know why the sun went down so quickly, or whether it did actually go down really quickly, but I am really tired. I’m gonna head back to our room?”

“Of course. And what do you mean the sun set quickly? It didn’t seem that unusual to me.”

“It doesn’t really matter, I guess.” Alec shrugged. “We’ve got a week, right? So I don’t think we’re really in a rush to do anything. Especially when there’s nothing going on, right?”  
“There’s always something going on, Alexander.” Magnus smiled. “You’ve just got to find out what it is.”

Alec smiled before he walked away back into B-1, taking a closer look at the elderly woman on his way out. She was sound asleep; the rocking of the train did nothing to keep her awake. Her husband gave Alec a confused look. Alec suddenly became aware of the block rune exposed on his neck. The ‘highest class’ of people aboard the Grand Siren would never approve of any kind of tattoos, no matter what kind of powerful properties they gave. Alec hurried out of the carriage and towards their cabin.

The cabin rocked gently as Alec stepped through the door, closing it behind him. As he placed that barrier between him and the rest of the train, the sounds became reduced and muffled. He kicked his shoes off by the three suitcases, fell back onto the bed and sighed. Thinking to himself about the elderly man again. Just from the look that Alec was given, he could tell that some of the other, more conservative, passengers weren’t exactly with how he looked. He clearly the youngest person on the train (bar the children who were aboard with their parents) and he knew that the passengers would absolutely look down on him for that.

Alec closed his eyes while he rocked back and forth on the bed. After lying for about thirty minutes, a pair of voices began to make its way through the wall, it sounded like a couple of young women in the cabin next door, in B-2.

“You know, I think I went to high school with the waitress in cabin C.” The first woman said.

“Oh, really?” The second exclaimed. “Then she hasn’t really done that much since you both left.”

“I know!” The woman giggled. “It’s a shame, she was really nice. But that was really the one and only thing that she had going for her, she didn’t really stand out.”

“Hmm, I’d say that’s a shame.”

“Well she made it on the train didn’t she?” The woman giggled again. “I mean, she may not be a worldly patron like you or I, but she’s on the train.”

“Oh, that’s true, but don’t you think THAT’S getting a bit mean?”

“Well I didn’t get on the train by being nice. And I think I’ve had enough of your attitude.”

“My attitude?” The woman’s voice moved to a higher pitch.

“Yeah. Well it’s not just here on the train. Even before that as well. I’ve been noticing for weeks that you’ve been plotting against me.”

“Plotting? How could I be plotting against you? You’re the only person that I’ve really been speaking to the last week or so. How could I plot against someone when I’ve had no real chance to, whether I wanted to or not – which I don’t, I wouldn’t have the chance.”

“Don’t lie to me!” There was a single thud and no response.

Alec was on the borderline between awake and asleep, he could hear what was going on but there was nothing he could do to wake himself up at the noises next door to him.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Magnus sighed to himself as he looked out of the window. The world outside was completely dark other than the silhouettes of the occasional tree on the land outside. Both the elderly man and woman that gave Alec the look had both fallen asleep. The majority of the carriage was slowly dying down, the chef had stopped serving people food and was cleaning his station. The waitress and the bar were still busy, while quieter than before, still busy. Some of the tables that were previously full had now been left empty, there weren’t enough people left in the cabin to fill all of the tables.

Magnus was waiting for Thea to return as she had told him that she would return in a little while. He never managed to find out which cabin that she was hers for the time on the train. If she didn’t return, Magnus knew that he was bound to see her at least once more within their time on the train so he would get the chance to talk to her more. And if it really came to it, there was always the option for him to go door to door to trying and find her. When he thought about the passengers that he had seen so far, other than him, Alec and Thea, everyone else just seemed to be the run of the mill patron of the train. Or at least, someone who you would traditionally expect to find on the train.

Thea returned to Magnus looking like a completely different woman, she had traded the cyan halter dress for a grey sweatshirt and a pair of black skinny jeans, removed all her make-up and taken down her hair.

“Cute look.” Magnus said.

“I’m sorry, but we can’t all look as amazing as you do all the time. Some of us actually enjoy looking this way sometimes as well.”

“I don’t believe it for a second.” Thea smiled at his words as she took a seat across from him.

“So I wanted to talk to you about Alec.” Thea said.

“What about him?”

“Well compared to you, he just seemed as little.” Thea took a second to pause. “A little plain.”

“Plain?” Magnus raised an eyebrow.

“Well you know, I would have expected you to go for someone a little more glamorous, you know.”

“I don’t know what to tell you. You can’t help your feelings, you just like who you like.” Thea looked down to the table.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Her tone flattened a little.

“And what about you. I know you must have done something pretty good to get yourself on board. But you don’t particularly seem like the standard clientele of this place. I feel like you’ve probably got some business in one of our destinations. Talking helps, if you’d like, I could listen.”

Thea sighed to herself and raised her head back up to face Magnus, her cheeks had gone slightly red. 

“I know.” She sighed a second time. “And believe me, Magnus, if you weren’t a warlock as well, I wouldn’t be so inclined to tell you.”

“That’s fine, my dear. You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to. I don’t want you to feel pressured.”

“Well considering it’s something that I’ve basically kept pent up for a good number of years. I feel like I probably should say something about it at some point in my life.” Thea placed both palms flat out on the table in front of her. “It’s my brother.” Thea put her head back slightly and exhaled heavily. “He died, pretty nastily a while back. In Ash Town of all places.”

“So you’re heading back there?” Thea nodded in response.

“I used to go there with him quite a lot, we would go and see the temple and then take a walk in the woods on the edge of town. But I haven’t actually visited since… well y’know.”

“I understand.” Magnus said quietly. “Is he the first person you’ve lost?”

“Since realising I was a warlock, yeah.” Thea’s voice sounded like it was breaking. Magnus was impressed with her that she had managed to make it through everything she had said without any kind of tears.

“What about your parents?”

“Orphan. You know, I’ve gotta go with that cliché in my life as well. Orphan girl loses brother and never had any parents so she never really had to deal with loss until now.” Thea dropped her head into her hands, the breaking in her voice had intensified. “How do you do it, Magnus?”

“How do I do what?” He asked.

“Deal with this.” She looked back up at Magnus. “I know you’re… older than I am.” She said. “And I am an idiot, I’ve probably really just insulted you and now I probably looked like a huge mess, crying in front of all these fancy people.”

“That’s one way of saying it.” Magnus chuckled. “Try, oh a couple hundred years.” He said. He didn’t really feel like telling her his actual age. “And I’m pretty sure most of the people are asleep they’re that old.” He sighed before continuing. “But, my dear, the way I’ve learned how to deal with loss the best. Is to first, realise that it doesn’t really get any easier in the beginning, losing someone you care about is always hard.” Magnus clenched a fist, softly in front of him. “But obviously, and most stupidly, it’s time. Time WILL eventually make you feel better. And I think what you’re doing by returning to the Ashen Temple is good as well, it will help you.” Thea sighed to herself. “Eventually you’ve just got to learn to dance in the rain, my dear.”

“Dance in the rain? What does that even mean.”

“It’s pretty simple.” Magnus released his fist. “While rain may not be the ideal whether you’d like to be caught in-“

“-you’ve got to make the best of it?”

“Essentially, yes. Dancing usually is a good thing. So dancing in the rain is making something good out of something not so good.” He smiled at her, softly as he tilted his head slightly. “The rain might ruin your hair, but you might as well have a little fun before it gets ruined.” Magnus stood up, pushing his chair under the table after him and held out a hand to Thea. “Come on, why don’t we dance? The music will stop playing soon and I have a boyfriend who is alone is our room that I would like to get back to fairly soon.” Thea cracked a smile through her face.

“I don’t really dance, though.”

“Well that doesn’t matter, because I do.” Magnus said pulling Thea up and over to the free space.


	3. Just Another Thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magnus and Alec come to find out about some of the mysteries of The Grand Siren. And they learn of a kidnapping on board the train.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, friends! Please let me know what you think in the comments :D
> 
> P.S. This is the last of the previously uploaded chapters, all of the ones until the end will be fresh, new content.

As the music ended Thea let go of Magnus’ hands and walked off into carriage D. Magnus sighed and frowned before turning around, facing the other end of the carriage. The chef removed her headband and walked off, away from her station and into carriage B. The waitress had already left into carriage B since there were only a few people left in carriage C, and they were all sat at the bar, keeping a disappointed looking bartender in place. The elderly couple asleep at the table on the far end of the carriage were still in the same place, swaying gently with the movement of the train.

With one last visual sweep, Magnus walked down passed the bar and stopped at the elderly couple. He snapped his fingers towards the couple before walking through, into carriage B. The elderly couple blinked a few times before waking up as the door closed behind Magnus. 

The lights in carriage B had been turned down to a low glow, the light reflected a shining off of the golden inlay on the edges of the walls and doors, casting an ethereal glow down the hall. The carriage hall sounded completely silent other than the sound of a man in cabin B-4 laughing occasionally in his room to something he was watching, a laugh track could occasionally be heard alongside his laughs. Magnus sighed again as he walked past each of the rooms before reaching his. Alec hadn’t bothered locking the door behind him when he opened the door earlier, letting Magnus get in silently. Alec was on his back, asleep, on top of the sheets and swaying side to side in lieu with the carriage on the tracks.

Magnus kicked his shoes off in the direction of the suitcases before turning around the shutting the door behind him. It made a much louder clicking sound than he expected when he locked it. He heard Alec let out a gasp almost in time with the click. Magnus turned around, Alec had sat up, rubbing his eyes.

“Sorry about that.” Magnus said, in a quiet voice. Alec sighed and looked up at Magnus, bleary eyed. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“Don’t…” Alec sighed again. “Don’t worry about it. I was just…”

“Couldn’t even make it into bed?”

“I made it TO the bed, at least.” Alec gave a tired smile.

“How is it?” Magnus asked. “Since you’ve gotten to test it out.”

“It’s, uhh, it’s fine?” Alec began to stammer, his words fading. Magnus chuckled to himself.

“Tell me I didn’t miss anything exciting, at least?” Alec sighed to himself again as he stood up, rubbing his eyes again before looking over at the wall connected to room B-2. “Everything alright?”

“I, I just thought I heard something coming from that room. Although I might have dreamed it so I’m not exactly sure it really happened.”

“You dreamed it?”

“Well, I don’t know. I laid back on the bed, I guess I fell asleep and started dreaming. So it might not have happened, I don’t know.” Magnus sighed to himself.

“Ah well, I at least had a lovely chat with Thea.” Alec raised his eyebrows as he sat up on the bed and rested himself against the back wall. “Yeah, she told me why she was going to Ash Town. I don’t think that it would be completely fair for me to tell you, considering it WAS kind of personal.” Alec rubbed his eyes and grunted as he laid back down. Magnus walked over to the left side of the bed, where Alec was. “I guess some people actually have a reason to be on this train, like us and Thea. And then you get all of the rich folk who are just here for the fun of it, because they can be.” Magnus sighed again. “Maybe tomorrow something’s actually going to happen.” Magnus stood back up and flipped the light switch off and returned to the bed.

(Monday morning)

Sunlight poured in through the lace curtains, bathing the room and an innocent light, bouncing off of the gold inlay around the room. Waking Magnus up first. He pulled himself out of bed, in his silk pyjamas, while Alec slept heavily next to him. One of Magnus’ suitcases had been opened and completely organised into the closet. He pulled out a clean, white towel and a travel bag filled with bathing products. He walked out of the room, taking the key with him and locking it behind him. He walked to the right of his room, towards carriage A. He walked through into the carriage, carriage A looked exactly the same as the other carriages, through to the end to the bathing carriage.

Magnus sighed to himself as he looked over the carriage. In all his years and all the train journeys he had taken and all the lavish places he had visited, he had never seen anything like the bathing carriage. Not so much that it looked unusual, but more that it was unusual that there was a full carriage dedicated to bathing and showering. Ocean blue tiles coated the walls and the floor, with rubber mats inlayed into the floor. Probably more for the benefit of the older passengers Magnus thought to himself.

He took the closest shower cubicle to the door and promptly closed the door behind himself. A plastic box sat in the bottom corner for Magnus to place his clothes and towel in while he showered. The warm water flowed perfectly down over his skin. Another thing that he wouldn’t have expected, he was expecting the water to be cold. He thought to himself, how good could a shower on board a train be?

Nobody else entered the bathing carriage the entire time Magnus was in there, not that that was anything for him to complain about. When he thought about it, he hadn’t actually heard anyone that morning nor had he seen anyone either. Magnus re-dressed and exited the bathing carriage. As he closed the door behind him and turned to face the hallway of carriage A, he noticed a person in a white shirt scurrying away from cabin A-3 and into carriage B. Magnus walked a little faster than he did on the way towards the bathing carriage, almost into a run as he entered carriage B. By the time he was stood outside of his room, the hallway was completely empty. He took a second to look around the hallway and out the window at the green of the passing trees before unlocking and walking back into his cabin.

Alec was still in the exact same place as when Magnus left. The only difference was that he had migrated to under the covers instead of on top of them. Magnus silently dressed, before heading back out into the hallway and headed towards carriage C. As he walked into the carriage, he noticed the elderly woman, the one asleep opposite the chef’s station the night before, was in tears and speaking with The Conductor. Magnus moved and stood within earshot of the conversation and stared out of the window.  
In between heavy breaths he could hear what the two were saying.

“I can’t find my husband. I’ve looked all over, and I spoke to a man who helped me look. All over the train.” She pulled a tissue from her purse and dabbed at her cheek twice. “We haven’t spent a night away from one another in twenty-four years.”

“But Madame.” The Conductor sighed. “He can’t exactly have gone far, can he?” The woman looked up at him. “Think about it, Ma’am. We haven’t stopped since the train set off yesterday, have we? So he HAS to be on the train somewhere. We’ll just have to keep looking, won’t we?” He smiled at her. “He’ll turn up, dear. Don’t worry about it.” The elderly woman sighed as The Conductor walked away from her, into carriage D.

Magnus sighed to himself, thinking how maybe the man wanted a little space after seeing how she treated Alec the night before. Magnus also thought to himself how nice it was of him to at least wake them both up last night. He walked over to the woman who was breathing heavily to herself, holding the tissue.

“Hello, Ma’am?” Magnus said as he approached the woman. “My name is Magnus Bane, is everything okay? Do you need help with something?” The woman looked up at Magnus, she was a good few inches shorter than Magnus was.

“Oh, thank you, young man.” She smiled. “My name is Angelique Harmone, socialite. I do need some help, thank you. It’s my husband, Walter, he disappeared last night.” Angelique took a deep breath. “We went to bed at the same time last night, but when I woke up this morning, I was alone. And I have looked and had one of the staff members on this train help me look for him. He was nowhere on board.”

“But, how could he have disappeared? We’ve not stopped anywhere?”

“I don’t know.” Her voice began to quiver.

“Do you think that maybe your husband is just taking a shower?”

“Again, I don’t know. I didn’t look into either of the shower carriages. And the man who helped me said that it wouldn’t be right for him to look into them. You are your friend could help me. I see that one of you is remarkably more appropriately dressed for this kind of grunt work.”

“Well, he’s not wrong. People ARE showering in there, I don’t think that they would appreciate someone peering in on them showering.”

“I guess.” She sighed. “But it shouldn’t take him this long to get back from showering, he’s never had problems with it before.” She sighed a second time before dabbing at the corner of each eye. “Would you please help me? See if you see anything of him, let me know if you see him?”  
“Of course. But I’m certain that he’ll turn back up soon.” Angelique sighed and nodded as she walked off into carriage D.

Magnus sighed to himself and pushed his hair out of his face and turned around. He looked down towards the entrance to carriage B and at the bar and chef’s station. The waitress had appeared and was sat at the bar, staring down at her phone. The bartender was stood with his back towards the back wall and was staring into a cocktail shaker before giving it a gentle shake from side to side, it didn’t look as if he was making something, but more making sure that it was still in good condition or in good shape.

The chef looked to have returned to her station. Her face was red and she was breathing heavily to herself while she rooted frantically through draws and pots and pans. The bar tender leaned over to the chef and began to whisper something.

“I can’t find the knife, Andy!” Magnus slowly walked towards the bartender and chef. “We can’t finish this if I can’t find it, we can’t even continue. Everything is going to be ruined if we can’t find it and I’m not going down because of this.”

“Don’t worry, you won’t, we’ll sort this out. But keep it together, Carrie, we’ve got guests coming in.”

Magnus turned back towards the door leading to carriage B. A woman walked in before Alec did. The only clothing item he had changed was the black t-shirt. He’d changed it to a navy blue one instead, but kept the same black jeans on that he slept in. His hair looked damp like he hadn’t properly dried it from the shower. He noticed Magnus stood alone, close to the bar before walking over to him.

“Magnus. Everything alright?” Alec asked. Magnus turned to face Alec and furrowed his brow.

“I don’t think so. I saw someone in a white shirt practically run away from me when I got out of the shower.” Alec crossed his arms and furrowed his brows along with Magnus.  
“They ran away from you? Why would they do that?”

“I don’t know, but it looked like they were trying to do something with one of the cabins in carriage A. Then I came in here, and apparently that elderly woman who fell asleep here last night, her husband has gone missing.”

“Missing? How?” Magnus shrugged at the question. “There’s no way, right?”

“As far as I’m aware. Oh, and then I think the chef and the bartender are up to something.” Alec sighed. “Apparently, the chef has lost a knife, and she needs to find it if they want,” Magnus raised his hands to make air quotes, “to finish this.”

“I thought this was meant to be a vacation.” Alec said.

“It was, but at this point I want to find out what’s going on. A man can’t just disappear from a moving train. And I’d quite like to find out what the bartender and the chef have got planned.” Magnus looked over at the bar and to the waitress who was still sat staring at her phone. “Could you do me a favour, Alexander?”

“I guess?” Alec shrugged. Magnus smiled.

“Could you talk to the chef for me? I’ve noticed she made eyes at you a few times last night. So, you may have an admirer.”

“Wh-what, why?”

“Because I want to talk to the bartender, and I don’t want the chef catching on.” Alec squinted at Magnus. “You know, in case they ARE plotting something.” Alec sighed again.

“Fine. Just don’t expect anything. It’s still too early. I just got up because you weren’t there when I woke up and I was worried.” Magnus smiled at him.

“I’m not exactly going to go anywhere am I?” Alec returned a tired smile.

“I guess. If you did, you might find the old guy.” Magnus chuckled.

“Exactly. Consider it just another thing to make the journey a little more exciting. Oh and her name is Carrie by the way.” Magnus said before urging Alec to go talk to the chef.

“Do I want to know how you found that out?” Magnus shrugged at the question as Alec sighed again. “Alright.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alec pressed down his shirt to make sure that there weren’t any visible creases. He wasn’t entirely sure why he was trying to make such an effort for a chef he had no interest in and hadn’t said a single word to yet. He had hoped that he could have at least waiting a little longer before he had to actually do anything that could have been remotely serious, but with how serious Magnus sounded about getting him to talk to the chef. He thought to himself that if he did it then maybe he would chill out a little.

He stopped himself a little in front of the chef’s station. Carrie had her back to Alec and was looking through all of the drawers and cupboards. Pulling out various spices and placing them on the counter above her without bringing her head up.

“Uhh, hi? Excuse me?” Alec said hesitantly. Carrie quickly pulled her head out of the cupboard and stood back up.

“Hi? Oh, hey. It’s you.” She replied. The redness in her face had faded a little bit from when Magnus saw her. “My name’s Carrie, the chef on board here- obviously. I don’t know why I felt the need to add that bit.” She held her hand out to Alec before looking down at it and dragging it back almost immediately.

“Alec. Is everything okay? You seem a little, I don’t know, a little shaken maybe?” Carrie pulled her shirt down a little to straighten it out.

“Oh, it’s nothing. Don’t worry. I’m just a little, y’know, overworked.” She sighed. “Being the only chef on board here and as far as I’m aware, there isn’t a backup. And to top things off, I lost a really important knife that I need. I’m meant to be making something, which I haven’t been told what it is yet, for The Conductor.” She sighed again. “I think that one of the passengers might have stolen it, y’know, so I ended up ‘breaking in’ to one of the cabins this morning to try and find it because I thought it was in there.”

“Okay, calm down.” Alec took Carrie’s hands in his. “For one, I know this might sound stupid, but… what kind of knife is it? I know sometimes knives look… different from other knives.” He said rolling his eyes at himself.

“It was my, my main chef knife. But like MINE, y’know? And when I say mine I mean that it has my name on it.”

“It has your name on it?” Alec tilted his head slightly.

“Yeah.” Carrie’s eyed widened in excitement. “It has the word ‘Carrie’ engraved at the base of the blade. And I’m kind of worried,” she furrowed her brows, “what if someone uses my knife to murder someone. Then they leave the knife out with the blood on it and then everyone thinks I did it?”

“Well.” Alec paused briefly. “Why do you think that someone is gonna murder someone for one?”

“Well.” She sighed. “I’ve not worked on the train for long, I’ve only been on here for a few trips and the last chef left me a little notebook with a list of things in it.” Something that didn’t exactly seem strange to Alec. He thought to himself that it was probably just something like a list of inventory or some tips and tricks of how to work everything in the kitchen. “And I know that that doesn’t seem weird but there was one list that was really strange. It had a list of all the weird things that happened during their time on board.”

“Weird things?” Alec asked, almost wishing he hadn’t.

“Yeah, weird things. Like things going missing. Crimes basically, but nothing that back – quite a lot of theft, but like the things always apparently were returned before the end journey. Like it made me think do people commit these crimes for fun? But as well as that, there was nothing about people going missing so this is all going in a new direction for everyone.” Alec sighed to himself.

“But if they all got returned, then – and I know this sounds really bad – but does it seem that bad? Because if the things were always returned, surely, if anything gets stolen, then it’ll get returned, right?” Carrie was about to respond, but stopped herself and sighed.

“I guess.” Carried reached into a pocket on her apron and pulled out a business card. “Well can I give you this?” Alec reached over and took the card being held out to him.

“Sure? I suppose.” Alec looked down at the card. It had simply the name ‘Carrie’ written on with a phone number. “Look, I gotta go. I should… keep an eye out for crimes?”

“Okay.” Carried sighed. “Keep an eye out for my knife, could you?” Alec nodded and waved the card as he walked away from her. He walked over to one of the windows at the far end of the carriage, near the entrance to carriage D.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alec stood, staring out of the window, waiting for Magnus to come back from talking to the bartender.

“Alexander.” Magnus said. “Good talk with the chef?” Alec sighed to himself.

“I think she gave me her number.” He said, showing Magnus the card he was given. “And apparently, she’s lost a knife with her name on it, Carrie, and she thinks that someone is going to kill someone with it and frame her. How’d your talk with the bartender go?”

“Odd. As for my chat, nothing was too out of the ordinary. Other than losing a gold ring, I didn’t get anything from him. So, I don’t think that he’s plotting anything. Or at least, it didn’t seem like it. I guess we’re just going to have to wait and see what’s next.” He sighed to himself.

“I told Carrie I’d keep an eye out for her knife. And I mean, it does seem pretty dangerous that there’s just a knife lying around somewhere on the train. So maybe we should go look for that – at least in places we’re allowed.” Magnus nodded.

“I’m alright with that. Maybe we’ll find something, or at least someone interesting to talk to.”

“Alright, I say we start one the end where there’s less to look. Carriage B and A?”

“Sure.” Magnus smiled as he took Alec’s arm.

And the two walked back towards the entrance to carriage B.


	4. Life of the Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magical things begin to happen. And the mystery begins to thicken as more goes missing and magic gets involved for Magnus and Alec as even more items go missing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not saying that I've started my next fic. But I've started my next fic. It's still Shadowhunters, but it's an AU !!
> 
> Still, let me know what you guys think of this in the comments.

Alec and Magnus walked out of carriage C and back into B. As they walked up through the hallway of the carriage they agreed that it probably wasn’t the best thing to do to just knock on everyone’s door one by one. They rich and affluent probably weren’t the most used to people just coming up to their doors and with Magnus living as long as he had already, he knew that it wouldn’t have been the smartest choice.

“Mind checking out further up that way?” Magnus asked, referring to carriage A and the shower carriage. “I need to sort something out in our room.”

“Sure.” Alec said, as they walked over to the entrance of their room. Magnus let himself in the room.

“I’ll find out once I’ve finished up here, alright?” Alec nodded in response before Magnus closed the door.

Alec thought to himself that it might have been something as simple as Magnus wanting to lie down for a while since he was up before him. He didn’t really blame Magnus, considering neither of them, as far as he was aware, had anything specific planned on the journey. Or at least, nothing in the way of people going missing planned. Alec was well aware that Magnus must have had something planned if he decided to take the two of them on a trip. Just nothing like this planned.

No time was wasted in waiting for Magnus, Alec walked immediately into carriage A. Everything looked the same. Same carpets and same golden inlays. Alec stepped further into the carriage, nothing looked out of place. All of the doors were closed and all he could hear was the sound of the train on the tracks and the low murmur of two people talking in room A-4. From what he could hear, there was nothing interesting being said. He heard something along the lines of Araelia, the snowy town they were due to be stopping in to refuel in a couple of days. One of the people mentioned how they couldn’t wait to see the snow.

Thinking that nothing interesting or useful would be coming from the conversation, Alec decided to walk on. He dragged his feet along the carpet in the hopes that maybe he would find something along the carpet, but nothing came of it. He made it to the door that lead into the bathing carriage. Alec walked in to a steamy room. Two of the four shower cubicles were taken and spewing steam into the room into vents that sent the steam outside. Alec didn’t exactly feel the need to knock on the doors to check who was in the cubicles, he knew that that invasion of privacy wasn’t necessary. He walked passed all the cubicles to the door on the other end of the carriage. A sign read, ‘Luggage Hold, Employees Only’. Unperturbed, Alec tried the door anyway, to no avail. It was locked. 

He sighed to himself before turning around and walking back out and back towards his room. Alec knocked on the door, announcing that it was only him at the door before opening it up to see Magnus sat on the bed with a book open on his lap.

“Hey, there was nothing I could see up that end of the train. Other than a locked door in the shower carriage.” Magnus looked up from the book.

“Oh, I think that would probably be the luggage car. I reckon that there might be something in there, other than people’s luggage.”

“What’s that you’re reading?” Alec asked.

“I’m seeing if I can see if there’s any answers to what might be going, I’m hoping this book might have some answers.” Magnus sighed as he closed the book. “There’s a gold ring missing, and the knife – I’m assuming, is some kind of steel. So, I was seeing if I could figure out if there’s any kind of reaction that someone is going to try and do with gold and steel, but there was nothing that I’ve found yet.” Magnus placed the book down on the bed next to him as the carriage rocked gently before he stood up. “I assume you’re ready to look around the rest of the train?”

“Yeah.” Alec smiled as he looked Magnus up and down. “Let’s go. And maybe we can figure some of this out.”

\----

Out in the hallway, the door to the room next door to theirs was wide open. Magnus peered in to see a woman stood in the middle of the room staring at a pile of broken wood on the floor.

“Everything alright in here?” Magnus asked the woman before looking down at the shattered desk. The woman sighed before looking up at Magnus, the bags under her eyes looking exceptionally pronounced against her pale skin.

“Oh umm.” She sighed again. “Not really. Kinda panicking. I broke the desk last night and it really only hit me today. I kind of just took a sleeping pill and didn’t want to wake up and face any consequences. But y’know, I probably have to.”

“By any chance.” Magnus started before pausing briefly. “Did the desk make a deep thud sound when it broke?”

“Uhh, yeah? Why? Does that matter?” She asked.

“I’m sure it might in some capacity.” Magnus said before turning to Alec and quickly raising his eyebrows as if to say, ‘that’s what you heard’. “How exactly did you break the desk, may I ask? And I probably should have asked your name, I’m Magnus.” The woman sat down on her bed. She tied her black hair into a messy bun.

“I’m Janet. And I kind of got in a fight last night.”

“A fight?” Alec interrupted.

“Yeah, with a girl I was meant to be travelling to Araelia with, my friend, Carrie.”

“You mean the chef?” Alec asked. Janet nodded. “If Carrie’s the chef then how is she meant to get off in Araelia?”

“Well the train comes back on the mostly the same path. It goes through Araelia both ways, so we were gonna hop off then.”

“Alright.” Magnus interrupted. “But what was it that you two were fighting about?” Janet sighed again.

“Carrie lost her knife. One that she got made specially for her by one of her friends when she got the job on board here. So, I assume that that would probably made her pretty upset and then she got annoyed at me for never listening to her or doing what she says. Which technically,” Janet paused briefly for breath, “is true.”

“That’s all good and well, but how did you manage to break the desk from that? And do you know where the knife is? We’re kind of looking for it.” Magnus asked.

“I have no idea where her knife is, she probably thought that I took it, maybe that’s why she came to me, I don’t know. And as for the desk, it literally just collapsed when I put my purse down on it last night while Carrie was in my room, I can’t really tell you how since I don’t really know.”

“So, you can’t tell us anything?” Alec asked.

“No, sorry.” Janet sighed. “I know this might be a little bad to ask you, but could you keep an eye out and let me know if you find Carrie’s knife. I really want to get it back to her.”

“Yeah, sure. She actually asked me to look for it already, so, we’re already on it.”

“Oh, thank you.” Janet sighed again. “I don’t want to sound rude, but could I ask you guys to go? I should probably sort this mess out before anyone actually sees it.” Alec nodded as he stepped backwards out of the room, crashing into Magnus as he walked. Magnus moved his hand to Alec’s waist to stop him from pushing the both of them over as they back out of the room and closed the door.

\----

“So, I guess the noise you thought you dreamed actually happened.” Magnus said.

“Yeah, so I’m not actually going crazy.” Alec said as he looked from side to side.

“Well I never thought that you were crazy. If you had left it a little longer, perhaps-“

“-Shut it, Magnus.” Alec said with a chuckle as he batted at Magnus’ arm. “Look at least I know that I didn’t just hear it.” Magnus shrugged. “Anyway, I think that we should carry on looking, at least. We’ve still got quite a few carriages to get through and it would probably be a good idea to try and find one of the lost passengers or items.”

“I agree. So let’s get going, shall we? None of them could have gotten that far away, right?” Alec nodded in response.

The two, now back in the hallway of carriage B. Began to walk over to the doorway the led into the dining carriage. As the two of them walked through the doorway, Carrie gave them a quick glance before returning her gaze down to the magazine she was reading. Magnus stared out over the carriage and noticed that Thea was just leaving, down at the far end of the carriage. He thought nothing of it and decided to simply carry on through the carriage. Around two thirds of the tables were taken with rich looking passengers of the train, a couple of which gave Alec a brief glance, as if to ask why he was here. Magnus and Alec promptly made their way into carriage D.

Alec was yet to see what the carriages down the end of the train they had entered looked like, but unsurprisingly, carriage D looked exactly alike to all the others he had seen. The two of them walked through the hall, inspecting each door as they passed. Each one of the four closed, with no sound coming from the other side. They had been told that every cabin was taken. Even if the passengers weren’t in their rooms they had to have been somewhere on the train. 

Alec heard Magnus start talking to him as they walked through the door into carriage E. To no one’s surprise, it looked exactly alike to the others. None of the words that Magnus was saying stayed in Alec’s head, he heard the word ‘India’ and assumed Magnus was telling another tale about his life. While normally Alec would have loved to listen to what Magnus had to say, this time around he didn’t really feel like it. He thought briefly to himself about the people who were missing, but those thoughts were swiftly replaced with thoughts about what the other, “higher class” passengers thought about him. He wasn’t often one to care what people thought about him, but when it came to Magnus and how different the two of them seemed from an outside perspective, it came into his mind that perhaps people may have just thought that people may have thought Magnus was pitying him by taking him travelling. It seemed a little ironic to him that he even agreed to help Angelique after she was probably in the crowds of people who assume that Alec doesn’t deserve or shouldn’t have a place on the train. Then he remembered to himself, that if he doesn’t help the mundanes out of situations that probably don’t even need his involvement.

Alec took a second to really think about what was happening while Magnus was still talking and while they walked into carriage F. Did he really need to be involved in the investigation? There wasn’t really any evidence that it was anything more than mundane crimes. Or anything he needed to get involved with, the passengers didn’t seem to be in any imminent danger either. If it wasn’t for Magnus, he wouldn’t be involved in any of the problems. Although, for Magnus, he was more than happy to help.

“Have you been listening to anything I’ve just said, Alec?” Magnus asked, snapping Alec back into focus.

“I- uhh, yeah, I just-“

“Well, what’s on your mind?” Magnus looked over to Alec. “You looked like you were deep in thought over something.”

“You don’t mind that I wasn’t listening?” Alec’s stomach turned, awaiting the answer.

“I would if it didn’t look like you were thinking about something serious. So… What is it?” Alec took a moment before replying, then sighed before he spoke.

“It’s just some of the people on this train.” The two of them slowed their pace. “They all seem so…”

“Stuck up?” Magnus interrupted. “Pretentious? Potentially unbearable?”

“Yes, oh my God, yes.” Alec turned to Magnus. “So, it’s not just me?” Magnus chuckled as he turned to Alec and took his hands in his own.

“You’re right, it isn’t just you.” Magnus turned the two of them around so they continued walking towards the next carriage. “The majority of the people that you’re going to find on this train, Alexander, minus the ones that work here, are the kinds of people who think that money is the most important thing. The kinds of people that are very unlikely to change their ways of thinking, the ones who don’t realise that change is a good thing and can’t handle things they don’t like very well.” Magnus paused to take a breath. “I wouldn’t waste time thinking about them if I were you. But if you’re like me, just fake it to get on their good side and then maybe you can get something from them one day.”

“Get something from them?” Alec looked back to Magnus.

“I’m kidding, of course. If there’s anyone that negative or who would look down on me or someone that I cared about. Then I wouldn’t care to associate with them, given the choice of course.” Alec turned to face the door in front of them and simply nodded approvingly, not saying anything.

They reached the end of carriage F and still nothing. There was nothing overwhelming obvious in the way of finding any of the lost passengers or items. At the end of the hallway there was a door leading into another shower carriage. Since they didn’t know how much further they would be allowed to look they entered into the carriage to see that it was completely empty and looked exactly the same, only the opposite way around from the other shower carriage, complete with the door at the end of the room. Only this door didn’t have ‘employees only’ on it.

The two of them hurried to the door. Alec pressed against it, to no avail.

“Locked.” Alec said to himself. “What do we do now? We’ve found nothing. And there’s nowhere else we can look.”

Magnus walked in front of Alec and knocked on the door. Alec looked from to both sides, taken aback by Magnus’ brash action. There was no response to Magnus’ knocking. He waited a few moments before knocking again. No response. He wasted no time in knocking again and tried opening the door himself, despite Alec already trying.

“I don’t think we’re gonna be getting in there anytime soon.” Alec remarked.

“Well. I disagree.” Magnus said.

“Uhh, what? We can’t just break in there, Magnus. Or trespass.”

“True. But I mean, it doesn’t say anywhere that whatever is beyond this door is for employees only.” Magnus turned around to look back down the hallway of the carriage. “And if anyone tells us that we shouldn’t be in there. Well.” Magnus turned to look at Alec. “Well I don’t see anything telling us we CAN’T go in.” Alec sighed as Magnus kissed him before turning around.

“I guess. You’re not wrong.” Alec admitted.

“And plus, I’m not making you follow me in here.” The door clicked and Magnus opened it, revealing a room with all black walls and a bed behind a partition screen. A pair of feet poked out from the bottom end of the bed.

“Is that someone asleep down there?” Alec’s face quickly turned to a pile of boxes marked ‘lost & found’ part way down the carriage. “Hey, look at those boxes.” He pointed towards them. “Think maybe one of the lost items could be in there?”

“It’s possible.” Magnus shrugged. “But I think we should at least ask whoever is in that bed. I would assume that they probably work here or are in charge of… this area? I’m not sure how to word that.” Alec shrugged, not exactly knowing what Magnus wanted him to say.

Magnus stepped ahead of Alec. Keeping his sounds to a minimum, Magnus stepped lightly down through the carriage, minus the bed, partition and the boxes – the carriage was bear, as if people never even found their way in. Magnus peered into the two boxes that had their tops exposed and nothing he could see immediately looked like any of the things they were looking for. A mustard yellow sweater was draped over one of the boxes and an old pair of once white shoes over the other.

Magnus arrived at the partition and peered around to look down to the person on the bed. A man was sprawled out on his back, snoring gently to himself as the train rocked back and forth. A sudden rock on the train caused the man to be shocked awake. Magnus backed up a couple of steps, out of site of the man. Alec took the time to walk up behind Magnus before the man had the chance to register than anyone else was in the carriage. He began to murmur to himself about oversleeping as he stood up out of his bed and walked out into the carriage before stopping suddenly at the sight of the two stood before him.

“Uhh, hi?” The man said, sounding groggy from sleep. “Can I help you guys with something?” He brushed seemingly nothing off of his blue jumpsuit.

“You can actually.” Magnus said, staring at the name tag on the man’s jumpsuit that read ‘Joseph’. “You see, we’re looking for a couple of passengers and a couple of items that have gone missing and we were wondering whether they’ve come through this way?”

“Missing?” Joseph sighed, rubbing a hand over his eyes. “No, I haven’t seen anyone, not since yesterday.” He looked from side to side. “To be honest, I went to sleep when the train was leaving the station and I’m not entirely sure for how much of the ride I’ve actually been awake.” Alec squinted his eyes at Joseph. “Other than, I guess, someone who works on the train I don’t think anyone has come through here, sorry.”

“Well do you mind if we take a look through those boxes over there?” Magnus asked.

“Uhh, yeah. Go for it. I take it you lost something?”

“Not me, specifically. But a few of the passengers have and they asked me to keep an eye out for them. I figured if that’s the lost and found then it’s worth a look.” Joseph shrugged before walking passed Alec and Magnus and peered through one of the blinds briefly.

Alec followed Magnus over to the two boxes. Magnus threw the sweater immediately off of the box, dismissing it completely. Alec took to the other box. Magnus wasn’t exactly expecting to find Carrie’s knife in either of the boxes, but he figured that it never hurt to look. It was a stupid thought, thinking that someone would give a knife of all things to lost and found. As unlikely as it was, Magnus figured that there might have been something that he might be able to use for a potion, even if it was just an old clothing item, there might have been some kind of specific fabric he needed for the future.

The disappointing this was that there was no knife in the box Magnus was looking though. Everything in the box was just old clothes. With the exception of a single ballet pump, there was nothing that Magnus could have used, or even salvaged to become wearable again.

“Any luck?” Magnus asked Alec, looking over into the other box.

“No.” Alec said, standing back up. “But I feel like this is absolutely something that you would wear.” He held up a silk scarf with a zebra pattern on it. Magnus gently took it from his hands and ran it through his fingers.

“You’re right.” He turned around to look at Joseph who was out of sight. Magnus walked and peered around one of the partitions and saw Joseph sat on his bed, reading a magazine. “Do you mind if we take a couple of things from the boxes?” Joseph looked up at Magnus.

“Uhh, you can for me. Nothing, as far as I’m aware, has been put in either of those boxes on this journey so I doubt anyone’s going to come back for any of those things.”

“Excellent. Thank you.” Magnus said as he turned around and walked back over to the box Alec was looking through. He put the scarf in the back pocket of his black, skinny jeans and knelt down to the other box. The contents were far nicer than the box he initially looked through. The clothes inside looked higher quality and more expensive, although not exactly to his current taste. The second ballet pump, to match the one in the other box, sat at the very bottom of the box. Magnus picked it up and inspected it, there was a green-grey rock indented in the bottom that Magnus stared intently at.

“What is that?” Alec asked. Magnus plucked the rock from the bottom of the shoe before dropping the shoe into the other box with it counterpart before standing back up.  
“I’ll tell you when we get back to our room, come on.” Alec raised is his eyebrows and turned around to walk out of the carriage. “Thank you, for letting us take a look through these boxes.” Magnus said to Joseph as he followed Alec out of the carriage and towards their room.

\----

Magnus and Alec walked through the door back into the dining carriage. The carriage was gearing back up and only a few of the tables were free and the three workers were busy filling all the passengers’ orders and rushing around. With the exception of the bar tender who was looking remarkably laid back while Carrie and the waitress were rushing around. As Magnus and Alec walked down through the carriage the bar tender stopped the two of them and called them over.

“Can we help you?” Magnus asked.

“Yeah.” The bar tender said, his young eyes appeared to droop a little. “I know that you’re keeping a look out for Carrie’s knife, don’t worry, she told me about it. And I was wondering if you guys could keep an eye out for something of mine that’s gone missing as well?” Alec took a moment and just thought to himself the sheer volume of things that are going missing.

“Of course we can. I can’t guarantee we’ll find it, but we’ll keep an eye out.” Magnus answered for the both of them. “What is it you’ve lost?”

“It’s a bracelet. One that my little sister gave me before I took this job.”

“Alright, what kind of bracelet? What’s it made of?”

“It’s not like a super valuable one. It’s made of a rainbow patterned fabric, she made it for me as a birthday present.”

“Sure thing, uhh-“ Magnus started.

“Oh- it’s Andrew, sorry.”

“Okay, Andrew. We’ll keep an eye out for your bracelet. When did you last have it? You know, as a starting point?”

“Well I had it earlier today. But I took it off when I started loading up the washer. Then literally just as I stood back up to get it, it was gone. And the only person who was even in the carriage was that blonde woman the two of you were talking to before.”

“Thea?” Magnus asked.

“If that’s her name, then yeah. But she was sat, facing away from the bar and pretty close to the door all the way down there. And I don’t know why she’d want to take it, or anyone since it’s not worth any money. Like they wouldn’t earn anything from it, I don’t think anyone would want to buy it, either.”

“Very odd. But I’ll speak to her later anyway, in case she does know something.”

“Thank you.” Andrew said, smiling a little, his eyes looking even more tired than before. “It means a lot to me and it would kill me if I had lost it completely.” Andrew sighed. “Anyway, I’ve gotta get back to work.” He gestured to a woman stood behind Magnus and Alec.

“Apologies, I won’t stop you.” Magnus said, pulling Alec away towards the door leading to carriage B.

Magnus and Alec walked in silence back to their room. The sun had all but set by the time they closed and locked their door behind them. Alec kicked his shoes off, into his open suitcase and sat down on the edge of the bed. Magnus remained on his feet and started pacing back and forth.

“Everything alright, Magnus?”

“Yes.” Magnus stopped to look at Alec. “I’m just trying to honestly figure out if there’s any connection between a missing man, a knife and the bracelet. I can’t think of anything specific.”

“I guess if the bracelet maybe had like a charm on it. Maybe like a metal chemical reaction or something?”

“It’s a possibility.” Magnus crossed his arms. “But I wouldn’t really have thought that if it does have a charm, it would be big enough to cause a decent reaction. But it is a definite possibility.”

“This might be a stretch.” Alec said. “But could it have something to do with the fact that it’s more of a sentimental thing?”

“I would reckon that if someone is trying to cause some kind of magical reaction, or a reaction of any kind, that would be the more likely explanation. There are a lot of spells, potions and curses, lots of magic that requires personal items. And I know it seems like Thea could be the only culprit for the missing bracelet, but I’ve never heard anything bad of her, only good.” Magnus rubbed his eyes. “I’ll talk to her later, or in the morning, I’m sure I’ll see her soon.”

“What was that rock that you picked off of that shoe earlier. I know that that’s not exactly relevant to what you’ve just been saying, but I was just curious.”

“Oh this?” Magnus pulled the rock out of his front pocket and it glittered in the sunlight. “I can’t remember what it’s called but it does have magical properties to it, so I thought I could use it at some point.”

“Oh, cool.”

“At this point, I think I’m going to need to find and talk to Thea again. See if she knows anything, because other than looking up possible potions and curses, I don’t think there’s anything we could do.” Magnus looked towards his suitcases before looking back at Alec. “Do you think you could take a look through some of my spell books to see if you could find any connection between, steel, fabric and… well old people?” Magnus shrugged.

“I guess. If there’s nothing else that we could be doing.”

“Thank you, Alexander. I know this seems really dull and I’m making you the life of the party here. But I mean, it would either be that or talking to Thea and I’m pretty sure it would be better, warlock to warlock.” Alec sighed to himself, not so much out of disappointment, but more out of sheer exhaustion.

“Yeah go for it. I’ll come find you if I find anything.”

“Thank you, Alexander.” Magnus walked over to Alec and placed a kiss on his forehead before walking out of the room.


	5. Dirty Laundry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mystery deepens as a fog infiltrates the train, causing a myriad of problems for the guests.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end of this chapter is perhaps one of, if not my favourite thing that I have written within this fic.
> 
> As always, let me know what you think in the comments :)

(Monday evening)

 

Magnus had told Alec which of his suitcases that he had packed his spell books in and heard Alec unzipping ones of them almost as soon as he had closed the door. Alec, if nothing else, was always a hard worker and extremely reliable. So even if there wasn’t anything in any of his books to be found, at least Alec would end up looking though all of them. Magnus thought to himself that at least he had someone looking through the books while he was going to find Thea.

Magnus walked through the doorway back into the dining carriage and quickly surveyed the carriage. Just as it so happened, he noticed Thea sat at a table on the far end of the carriage, alone at a table with a drink. She was staring out the window and didn’t notice Magnus until he was but a few steps away from the table.

“Magnus. Nice to see you again.” She said.

“You, too.” Magnus responded, pulling a chair out to sit.

“So, how’s the search been going? Find anything?”

“Unfortunately, no. And to add even more to it, something else has been lost.”

“Really?” Thea said with a strong inflection. “What is it now? It’s not another old man, is it?” Magnus took a moment before saying anything.

“No, it isn’t.” Magnus placed both his hands on the table, interlocking his fingers. “It’s a bracelet, belonging to the bartender.

“Oh.” She sounded almost deflated. “Do you know what kind of bracelet?”

“Well, he told me that it was one his sister gave to him and made the point to say that it wouldn’t really be valuable to anyone besides him. Which makes sense.”

“That’s true.” Thea mimicked Magnus by placing both her hands on the table. “Where’s Alec, by the way? I’m surprised he’s not here with you.”

“I asked him to read through some things to see if we can find any answers.” Thea’s mouth twisted a little.  
“So, what, you don’t trust him outside your room. So you lock him up with some books?”

“Not at all, Thea. We actually both agreed it would be easier if he do that while I come back out.” Magnus removed his hands from the table and brushed at his shirt. “And you know. I actually wanted to ask you whether you were onto anything, as well.”

“It’s a shame that Alec couldn’t join us. Because I have another friend on board this train that would have loved to meet him-“

“-or you could just avoid my question, as well. I guess that works, too.” Magnus interrupted. Thea frowned at him before sitting back in her chair.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” She sighed. “I haven’t.”

“And that’s it, just… nothing?”

“If I’ve got nothing to tell you, I’ve got nothing to tell you, Magnus. Sorry. I’ve been a bit busy trying to keep my Mites under control.”

“Mites?” Magnus questioned, placing his hands back on the table. “What’s that?”

“I guess you could call them my pets, my dirty laundry, I’m always picking up after them. They’re essentially little black or grey fuzzballs. Imagine what not dusting and then collecting all that dust into a ball looks like, then give it eyes and sentience and you’ve basically got a Mite or Mites. Tricky little things that don’t like to listen to me. I usually have to keep them locked in my room, but they still manage to escape somehow.”

“I haven’t actually seen anything like that. The ones that are escaping must be doing a good job in keeping hidden.”

“You haven’t? That’s good, I guess.” She sighed again. “I suppose they’re not causing trouble or scaring any of the passengers. So… what is it that you’ve got Alec reading up on, exactly.”

“Honestly, I want to see if there’s any connection with the items that have gone missing. The items, I realise can be replaced, physically, but I’m genuinely quite concerned for the well-being of the Angelique’s husband.”

“You’re looking for a connection between a knife and a bracelet? Have you gotten anything, yet? Or had any ideas?” Magnus squinted at Thea.

“Nothing yet. I mean, what could you do with a steel knife and a fabric bracelet?” Magnus had no intention of telling Thea everything that he and Alec had discussed. He wasn’t going to tell her about the potential magic side that they were thinking of. “Maybe someone just wanted a new knife and just wanted and fancy decoration for it. And I’m pretty sure there’s going to be no reaction between the steel and the fabric if they’re used together. So, we’ve got nothing.”

“It’s really a shame, I can’t even imagine how Angelique must be feeling, as well.”

“I know. But I still stand by the idea that there’s no possible way he COULDN’T be on the train. She said that he was on board when the train departed, we haven’t stopped anywhere and the windows don’t open enough to jump out of.” Magnus sighed. “That may have gotten unintentionally dark towards the end, but you know what I mean.”

“I do.” Thea looked down at her nails on the table. “Have you looked everywhere on the train? Because there were a couple of rooms that I actually couldn’t get into.”

“We got in most of them. Just like you, there were a couple we couldn’t get into. I’m going to hazard a guess as to it being the two room on either end of the train – through the shower carriages?” Thea nodded and gave an ‘mm-hmm’ in response. “Shockingly enough, Alec and I didn’t really want to get in trouble for breaking and entering.” Magnus felt his phone buzzing in his pocket. Almost instantly, he peered down to see a text from Alec that read: 

‘found something good, get back here.’

Sliding his phone back into his pocket and before Thea could say anything else, he bid her farewell and stood back up, pushing the chair in behind him. He walked briskly back into the room where he found Alec, sat cross-legged with one of the smaller books by his side and one of the larger ones in his lap.

“You said you found something?” Magnus asked, locking the door behind him.

“Yeah, come look.” Alec said as Magnus walked over and sat down next to Alec looking down into the book. “I found this page and it’s talking about enchanted weapons and ways to give weapons specific enchantments. And this one is to enchant a weapon to make it more deadly against someone who you already know.”

“That seems really vague.” Magnus said.

“I know. But it says that it works against, acquaintances, friends and lovers.”

“And how do you perform it then?”

“Your book says that it needs melted steel, pure gold, a soul of the weary and a prized possession. So, some pretty vague stuff.”

“A soul of the weary?” Magnus said before Alec turned his head to face him.

“Like the old man that’s gone missing? Melted steel, Carrie’s knife. A prized possession, Andrew’s bracelet.”

“So, someone’s trying to pull this enchantment off?” Magnus said with caution in his voice.

“And all they need is pure gold.” Alec sighed. “And with the amount of rich people here on the train, one of them is bound to have something pure gold.”

“That means…”

“Somebody is out to kill someone on this train.” Magnus sighed to himself.

“I’m really sorry Alexander. I wanted this to be a vacation for us, not this.”

“This isn’t your fault Magnus. I highly doubt that you planned for someone to get kidnapped and for a murder plot to happen.” Alec embraced Magnus dropping the book on the floor.

“Thank you, Alec.” Magnus sighed to himself again. “What do we do now?”

“We need to find out who’s trying to kill someone! And pretty much, at this point, I’m pretty sure the only person who would probably even know about this magic would be Thea. I’m not saying that just because I don’t trust her, Magnus. I’m saying that just because, other than you, I’m pretty sure she’s the only warlock here and would be the only one who would know how to do it.” Magnus sat in silence for a few seconds, looking at the floor before turning back to Alec.

“You’re right. But I wouldn’t want to throw her onto the train tracks immediately, just because she’s a warlock, but I completely understand what you mean.”

“Did you get to talk to her at all? I know you didn’t exactly get long.”

“I did. She was actually just sat in the dining carriage again. All I really learned was that she has little creatures that she calls Mites, that she said look like little dust balls and that they’re mischievous and difficult to control.”

“That sounds… strange. And I’ve never even heard of a Mite.” Alec said.

“I know. Neither had I. But apparently they’re not causing any problems to any of the passengers.”

“I guess that’s good. I mean, what do we do now, because I don’t think we could tell anyone about what’s going on without sounding crazy. And I need you to not tell Thea about this, Magnus. Since she’s technically the closest thing we have to a suspect right now, I wouldn’t want her getting spooked on the off chance it actually is her doing all of this.”

“I agree. I genuinely think that would be the best course of action for us to follow, right now. Unless we can magically find out who it is really soon, I don’t know how we’re going to stop this.”

“Could that little stone you found earlier help, or something in one of your bags?” Alec asked. Magnus stopped to look at his bags for a few seconds, mentally listing off the things that he had packed.

“Maybe. I did bring quite a lot of stuff. And I’m sure many of the more pedestrian ingredients that I would need for things would be on board. So there might be something I could do. I think this is just going to be a case of looking through all the books again.” He looked back at Alec and noticed the bags under his eyes. “Don’t worry, Alec, I wouldn’t expect you to do it this time, either.”

“Well I don’t really know what I could do. I wouldn’t know what you’re looking for.” Alec shrugged.

“To be honest, I’m not entirely sure myself at the moment.” Magnus sighed. “I think I’m just going to have to look through everything, see what I can find.”

“Can I help in any way?”

“Right now, there’s nothing that I can think of. Maybe, to save time, later I might need you to get something for me, but that’s about it.” Alec nodded in response.

“Alright. I guess if there’s nothing that I can do, do you mind if I lie down?”

“Not at all.” Magnus smiled as Alec sat further back and laid himself down and faced away from Magnus.

Magnus pulled himself off of the bed, taking the book next to him with him and moving the book on the floor over to him, placing them on top of one another. He pulled one of his suitcases over towards him, unzipping it onto the ground unleashing the contents onto the floor around him. Amongst the myriad of clothes, there were various books, scrolls and potions. He moved all of the books into one pile that sat seven books high, including the two that were already out. He took the first book from the top of the pile, the one that Alec had open when he came back in the room and began to browse the pages.

\---

The sound of a whistle shocked Alec awake. He rolled himself over and saw that the bed was in the exact same position as when he had fallen asleep. He saw that one of Magnus’ suitcases was open with the contents sprawled over the floor. He looked over and saw that his suitcase had been opened, contents in the same state as Magnus’, although Magnus himself was nowhere to be seen. Alec’s first thought was that he was just taking a shower so there was no need for him to worry about it.

He turned and looked out of the window and could see nothing but what looked like fog. Or clouds. He thoughts that he saw brief silhouettes through the fog occasionally which he assumed to just be trees.

Alec pushed himself out of bed, his bones felt physically heavier than when he laid down to sleep. He felt almost worn out by the time he walked over to all the clothes on the floor. He reached down and changed his shirt for another one. He blinked a few times through blurred vision to realise that he was no longer holding the shirt he had just picked up and couldn’t see it anywhere in the room. He turned around to the window and noticed that the fog had started seeping in through the window despite the window being completely closed. The fog felt frosty as it chilled through his bones.

“Magnus?” He called out through a hoarse voice that echoed. “What the hell…?”

Alec walked over to the door, his legs giving way and causing him to stumble into the door. He pushed himself back up into a stable position. Before moving again, the door began to creak as it fell down into the hallway, with the hinges falling to the floor. Alec stumbled out into the hallway, his vision blurring again. The fog has formed a layer over the floor, when Alec looked down, he noticed that it was so thick that it had completely enveloped the door on the ground. He kicked through the fog, he could see that the door was still there on the floor as the fog he kicked rose up and dissipated into nothing.

His first thought was to go and see if Magnus was indeed in the shower carriage. Vision blurred and legs weak, Alec began to stumble his was towards the door into carriage A. He braced himself against the wall as he walked. Once he reached the door, he forced his weight against his and almost fell to the floor as pushed through.

Carriage A was equally a filled with the fog that B was. The cold from it chilling up through his body. A figure approached him, fog spiralling around their feet. Alec tried to ask for help and then ask what was going on, but no sound came out. As the figure got closer, he realised that it was Angelique. However, her skin was far paler than it was when he had last seen her, almost completely white. ‘This is your fault’, Alec heard in his head as Angelique walked completely through his body and causing his vision to completely go.

As his vision returned, he found himself in the dining carriage, stood in the exact spot he stood in when The Conductor made his speech. His vision was slowly clearing, causing him to notice figures of some of the passengers wandering around the room, in and out of the door. No one whose name he knew he could see. No Magnus, no Thea. He felt a tap on his shoulder, before he had the chance to turn around to see what it was, the hand forced him to turn around, leaving a feeling like something had dug into his shoulder. A burn to contrast the cold of the fog.

It was Carrie. Her face completely white, just like Angelique’s. Alec tried speaking again. Again, there were no words from his mouth. He heard her voice in his head, just like Angelique’s. ‘How could you let this happen to me? I believed in you!’ Carrie stood still for a moment before blood began to trickle down her face. He tried to lift his hand to touch her but was unable to move. The red was the most prominent of reds Alec had seen from blood. With three streaks of blood down her face, she fell forward, through Alec’s body, dissipating into fog as she hit him.

Another hand pulled him back around to the way he was initially facing to see Thea, wearing the cyan dress from the first night he saw her and Magnus, stood behind her in the clothes he last saw her in. Alec tried to reach for Magnus and call his name, still nothing.

“Don’t bother, Alec.” Thea said. “There’s nothing that you can do at this point.” She moved to the side so that Alec could see Magnus.

“A steel blade.” Magnus started, holding Carrie’s knife. “Pure gold.” Thea took the earrings out of her ears and placed them on top of the knife Magnus was holding horizontally. “A prized possession.” Thea placed Andrew’s rainbow bracelet over the knife, the three items began to float over Magnus’ right hand as he held it up. “And the soul of the weary.” Alec could see the body of an elderly man on the floor, behind Magnus. A white shining ball with a blue tinted outline floated in towards the three other items. “These items combined create the perfect weapon to kill an acquaintance, friend,” Magnus stared Alec directly in the eye, “or lover.” Alec tried to shout to Magnus, he could feel hot tears rolling down his face and onto the ground. The two shining balls merged into one and Magnus placed his left hand into it. The light formed the shape of a set of bright white claws around his hand. “And this is it, Alexander.” Magnus’ cat eyes appeared. “I wish I could say that I feel sorry about this, but I just don’t. I don’t know what ever made you think that I care about you, or ever cared about you, Alexander.” The tears began to burn on Alec’s skin.

“Can we hurry this up?” Thea said. “I’m tired of this.”

“Of course, my dear.” Magnus said to Thea. “Goodbye, Alexander.” Magnus’ voice echoed before plunging the shining claws into Alec’s chest.


	6. Back on the Map

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec and Magnus meet a couple more of the passengers on the train. The two of which may or may not play a vital role in the mystery. And Alec suffers, again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello folks. I thought I'd post this chapter now since it is my birthday on May 2nd (so 2 days after I'm posting this) and I just wanted some time to chill.
> 
> As always, let me know what you guys think in the comments. :D

The claws sent a shockwave of freezing cold through Alec’s entire body, blurring his vision again. This time completely. Back into darkness.

Alec shot up, coughing and spluttering. He was back on the bed. The first thing he did was turn around to look out of the window to see nothing but meadow for miles. He got to his knees to stare out of the window, looking for any sign of anything.

“Alec? Everything okay?” Alec shot around and saw Magnus, with wet hair standing just before the door in a red silk shirt and black skinny jeans.

“Magnus. You’re?”

“Here?” Alec climbed off the bed and practically ran over to Magnus and threw his arms around him. “Alec? What happened?”

“The fog, it’s gone. And Carrie? Where is she?”

“In the dining carriage, I’d presume?” Magnus said, squeezing Alec tighter. “Alec, please tell me what happened.” Alec let go and took a step back.

“You’re not trying to kill me.” He said in between breaths.

“No?” Magnus said, draping his towel over the desk. “Why on Earth would I be trying to kill you? And what fog are you talking about?”

“I- I don’t know.” Alec folded his arms. “There was a cold fog all over the train, and you were stood in the dining carriage with Thea and for some reason, you ended up making that enchanted weapon. You told me you didn’t-“ Alec’s eyes began to well up, “-you told me you never cared about me… and then you- you killed me with it.”

“Alec.” Magnus said quietly. “That absolutely is not true. I DO care about you, I probably care about you more than anyone else at this point.” He walked over to Alec and pulled him into a hug. “And why would I want to kill you? I have zero reason to do so.” Magnus could hear Alec’s ragged breathing in his ear. “I can promise you that I have no intention of trying to hurt you, in any way.”

Alec let go of Magnus and sat back down on the bed, he put his head in his hands and rubbed his eyes.

“I saw the weapon.” Alec said, barely audibly, removing his head from his hands and looking back up at Magnus. The bags under his eyes especially pronounced. “And the gold.”

“You did? Like how it was made?” Magnus asked. Alec nodded in response. “What did it look like?”

“It… it looked like a pair of claws.”

“Claws?”

“Yeah, but they were shining. Like they were a holy weapon or something?”

“Where did the gold come from? And how did… how did I make the weapon?” Alec was hesitant to answer with the remnants of what he had just seen replaying in his mind.

“Thea. Her earrings. And starting with the knife, you just started putting the stuff on top of each other, then it started floating- I don’t know, I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

“That’s fine, Alec. I understand.” Magnus said, sitting down next to him.

“One last thing. I don’t think it was a dream, Magnus.”

“What do you mean?”

“I could feel everything. Like the fog, it almost completely froze me, I could barely move. And- and when you-… when you… stabbed me. I felt the claws going through my body.”

“Well, whatever you saw, I can promise you I have no intentions of doing any of them.”

“Thank you… Magnus.” Alec said quietly as Magnus pulled him tightly in a hug, as if he had no intention of letting go.

“And plus. We still need to find out who is actually trying to do all of this, or where any of the missing things are. Since I can assure you that it isn’t me who is trying to do it. So,” Magnus looked at Alec, placing a hand under his chin and holding it up, “we need to get you back on the map and back in this thing. So, come on.” Magnus said, pulling Alec up and into a kiss. “I’m hoping that’s a start.” Alec looked down as a smile crept onto his face. “And I’ll take that as a yes.” Alec nodded.

The carriage rocked a little heavier than usual as the two of them walked out of their room and into the hall. Completely ignoring it, they both continued down the hall towards the dining carriage. Just before they opened the door into the dining carriage a woman’s scream came from beyond the door. Without hesitation, Alec pushed through the door into the carriage.

Nothing looked instantly different. The only thing he could see was the direction that everyone was staring. Presumably in the direction of the person who screamed. There was a middle aged, blonde woman, wearing a fur coat stood with her back against one of the windows.

“That… that CREATURE!” She said breathing heavily. “It tried to make off with one of my rings. Ugh, thieving scoundrel.” Murmuring could be heard from other passengers. Magnus and Alec walked over to her and the other woman she was with.

“Ma’am?” Magnus started. “Is everything okay?”

“I should say that it most certainly is not!” The woman huffed.

“Mom, it’s not that bad. It didn’t get away with anything.” A younger woman wearing a simple t-shirt and skinny jeans, looking positively pedestrian compared to some of the passengers.

“Oh hush, Mona. We must take things like this seriously! If we don’t, what’s next?”

“I don’t know, Mom, what is next?”

“Not the point, Mona.”

“ANYWAY.” Alec interrupted. “What happened?” The older woman turned back around to face Magnus and Alec.

“Yes, of course.” The older woman said. “You see, my name is Jennifer van Thwait and this is my daughter Mona.” Jennifer gestured to Mona, who gave a slight wave. “This morning, we came to enjoy a lovely breakfast, like we did yesterday but this morning some dastardly little cretin tried stealing one of my rings. And had it not been for Mona, it would have escaped with one of my rings.”

“It wouldn’t happen to be a gold ring that the ‘creature’ tried stealing?” Alec asked.

“Yes, dear. All of my rings are gold, pure gold. I assume it was probably going to try and sell it. Although, it looked like nothing I had ever seen before.” Magnus and Alec looked and one another, both of their thoughts went to the same place, Mites.

“Could you describe the creature for us, Ma’am?” Magnus asked.

“Yes, I can. It was this grotesque little grey thing. It was just like a little ball. Not a very smart thing, mind you. But quite a brute for its minute stature, no taller than three inches, I should say. It jumped up on the table and tried pulling one of the rings right off my finger. It almost tore my finger clean off.” Mona sighed at what her mother was saying. “Had it not been for Mona, like I said, it would have gotten one.”

“I just batted it away, Mom.”

“Yes, but then the little thing ran away towards the back of the train.” Jennifer pointed towards carriage D. Jennifer began to raise her voice. “I should think that everyone should be keeping an eye out for these little monsters. And that you should keep your belongings close to you, should they try and steal from you.” Jennifer sighed to herself before turning to Mona. “Come on, Mona. We should head back to our room.”

“Alright…” Mona sighed as she followed her mother into carriage D.

\----

“We know what we have to do, right?” Alec asked. Magnus sighed as the answer went through his head.

“Find Thea.” He said flatly.

“I’m sorry, Magnus.”

“Don’t worry about it. You’ve done nothing wrong.” Magnus crossed his arms. “I was just hoping that I could find a friend in her, really. There are far too many people that I have made enemies of over the years.” Magnus turned to face Alec. “All the evidence we’ve seen points to her and her alone, so I don’t know what else we could assume.”

“How do we find her, then?”

“Well, unless she’s portalled away somewhere, she’s going to be on the train somewhere.” Magnus sighed. “We’re just going to have to search the place… again. So, you take carriages A and B, I’ll head the other way and then we’ll meet in the middle. Sound good?”

“Let’s do it.” Alec nodded. “And please, be careful Magnus.” His voice had a pleading tone.

“Of course, same goes to you.” They smiled at one another before walking separate ways.

Alec’s first thought was to stop off in their room first since he was aware that Magnus could use his magic at any point he was okay for fighting, but there was nothing he could do himself, other than fist fighting. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was going to look for specifically as he knew that he didn’t pack anything specifically for fighting since it wasn’t really what he was expecting out of a vacation with Magnus.

As he stepped through the doorway he noticed a significant drop in temperature compared to the dining carriage, so much so that he could see his own breath. In his mind, he knew that this was likely to happen as they got closer and closer to Araelia, since it was a town drenched in snow. But the train wasn’t due to stop there for another day. He folded his arms as he walked towards his and Magnus’ room, looking out of each window that he passed. Nothing looked out of the ordinary and there was no sign of snow out of any of them.

Alec pushed the door open and noticed a sheet of paper sat on the bed. He shut and locked the door behind him and walked over to the note that read:  
'Do you know what happens to a body when the temperature gets too low? It shuts down. If you keep sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong, you and everyone you care about it going to be left out in the cold. Or just maybe, those claws will end up in your chest for real.  
Also, if you want a hint. I am trying to do something at the Ashen Temple, so you needn’t worry about me running off during our stop at Araelia. I’m still not going to give back Mr. Harmone, though. I do need him. But I would appreciate you and your boyfriend stop trying to figure everything out otherwise I’ll have to stop you.  
One final thing, you might want to keep an eye on that Thea girl. She’s very troublesome, isn’t she?'

The immediate thought that came into Alec’s mind was that it was Thea who had left the note. But at the same time, he didn’t understand why it would be Thea who left it, when it specifically says to keep an eye out for her. He played in his mind that it could still be Thea who left the note but just trying to clear her own name by writing that. He stopped for a moment before folding the page into his back pocket and reaching for his suitcase and hoping that there may have been something useful that he packed.

Rifling through the contents, he noticed the distinct lack of colour. He stopped for a second and remembered he had left his stele in one of the shirts that he owned, he hoped that it was one of the ones that he had packed. Alec began unfolding all of his clothes, patting down every shirt that he found, even the t-shirts – the ones that clearly didn’t have his stele inside of them. As he was emptying the contents of his case onto the ground he picked out another, shockingly, black button down shirt that had something solid inside. He unfolded it quickly and the solid object fell onto the floor. His stele. He had brought it with him. He picked it off of the floor and placed it in the same pocket and the crumpled note before walking back out of the room into the hall.

\---

The hall was colder than it was before. Before he walked off into carriage A, Alec heard Janet in the room next to him talking to someone.

“Yeah, Mom. It’s gotten really cold all of a sudden. Like I woke up this morning and it was fine. I should try and find The Conductor, I think he’s the one in charge, so I should see if I can get him to do something about it.”

It wasn’t just him, or the hallway. Janet was feeling the cold as well. Alec thought that maybe they were coming up on Araelia faster than they planned. He looked out of one of the windows and he still couldn’t see and snow, or any sign of the cold outside. He could still hear Janet speaking, although what he could hear didn’t sound like it was of any importance. The main thing he gathered was that the cold wasn’t just on him.

He sighed to himself walking through the door into carriage A. It felt slightly warmer than carriage B was, but he could feel it getting colder. He thought to himself that if he didn’t find Thea up the way he was going he would change his priorities to meeting back up with Magnus instead and show him the note. At least with having his stele, Alec could activate runes to give him a fighting chance if anything came his way. He shut the door he just walked through behind him and heard someone in one of the cabins screaming. Alec braced himself, pulling his stele out of his back pocket.

One of the doors to the furthest rooms flew open and a Mites jumped out of the room. Alec heard the door slamming shut as the Mites began hopping down the hallway towards him. With the door shut behind him, there was no real way that the Mite would be able to escape from him. Having never faced a Mite and having had to never stop one, he didn’t know what would be an effective way in fighting it, all he could remember was that it most likely belonged to Thea. The Mite stopped before him, Jennifer was right, it couldn’t have been taller than three inches. The two stared each other down.

The Mite, with its plain white eyes, jumped at Alec, attempting to tackle him down. Alec felt almost nothing as it hit him. Wasting no time in thinking, he brought his boot down on top of the Mite, crushing it completely into a mound of dust. He felt something more solid in the pile of dust that the Mite left behind. Alec moved the dust pile around with his foot, revealing a golden glint within. He reached down to find that it was a ring, presumably belonging to someone in that room, Alec thought to himself.

He picked up the ring and walked down towards the room the Mite jumped out of. He heard a voice coming out of the room he was about the knock on the door of.

“It stole my ring. The one Grandma gave me! What am I going to do? Mom’s gonna kill me.”

Alec knocked on the door before he heard anymore and the voice suddenly stopped. Alec waited a few more seconds before the door unlocked and opened.

“Hi? Can I help you?” A young girl answered the door, looking physically stressed.

“Is this your ring?” Alec said, holding up the ring.

“Oh my goodness, yes! It is.” Alec handed it to the girl. “Thank you so much. But I literally just lost it, how did you get it?” Alec’s mind rushed as he didn’t particularly want to tell her too much about what he knew at the risk of panicking her.

“I stood on a little thing down the hall and it dropped it, then I heard you shouting about a ring, I assumed it was yours.” The girl sighed a heavy sigh.

“Oh. Well thank you, but do you know what it was? Or what it was doing? Because it just stole the ring and ran off.” Again, Alec didn’t want to tell her anything.

“I don’t have a clue, sorry. But apparently, a woman, Jennifer van- something, saw one earlier as well. Maybe it would be worth seeing if you could find her and ask her about it.” Alec shrugged, acting nonchalant about the whole situation. The girl stood for a moment.

“I guess, I think I should probably find The Conductor, tell him about it. Thank you, again.” She said before walking out of her room, shutting it behind her and walking down the hall towards carriage B, rubbing her arms along the way.

Alec let out a sigh of relief, thinking and hoping that he hadn’t given anything away that he knew. He kept it in his mind that clearly whoever wrote him the threatening note knows about what he’s trying to do. And clearly, they knew a lot. He thought that he didn’t need anyone else knowing anything. At the same time, he was wondering how Magnus was doing, despite the fact they had barely been apart for more than ten minutes.

He walked through the door into the shower carriage and felt the temperature difference instantly. It was almost a normal temperature with the fact that two of the showers were running, steaming the room. Alec paid no attention to the people that were in the showers and went straight for the door that had been locked the last time he was there. He tried pulling and pushing on the door. Still locked. Is crossed his mind to just break the door down, but without just reason, he immediately realised that it wouldn’t have been a smart decision to do so.

Alec racked his brain, thinking of a rune that he could use to help him get it. The first one that came into his mind was Heat. Burn a hole in the door, same response as breaking the door down so not a good idea. Acceleration? Maybe it would cause the door to rot if he used it on the wood. Again, probably not smart to ruin someone else’s property. Without breaking it, he could think of no way to get inside. As he was about to leave one final rune popped into his mind, Voyance. He might not be able to get inside, but that wouldn’t stop him from seeing inside.

The symbol burned into the skin on the back on his right hand. Shapes began forming beyond the wall and through the door. Most of what formed looked to be nothing more than people’s luggage and crates of supplies. Through all of the bags and boxes, another shape began to form in Alec’s vision. A human shape. Seeing the shape caused Alec to breathe out, sharply. His immediate thought was that he should find Magnus. If there was anything that could be done, he was more likely to know what to do. As Alec walked back out of the shower carriage and through carriages A and B, he thought to himself that there was a good chance that the body in there was Mr. Harmone’s. If that was the case, then there was also a good chance that whatever the person who wrote the note is planning could be delayed.

The cold had permeated into the dining carriage. Alec noticed the temperature had slowly been dropping as time went by. From what he could tell in the dining carriage, Carrie was the only one who couldn’t actually tell that the train had gotten cold from all of the steaming pots around her. The tables towards the lower end of the carriage were all completely empty as people had all slowly moved slowly towards the tables closer to Carrie in an effort to retain a little extra warmth.

Alec ignored everyone as he strode through the carriage, he knew that Magnus couldn’t have gotten far. Through the door, Alec immediately spotted Magnus at the end of the corridor about to walk down into the next carriage.

“Magnus!” Alec called. Magnus turned around, closing the door behind him. “I found something.”

“Alec?” Magnus said. “Are you alright? You look a little… off.” Magnus walked towards Alec quickly and placed a hand on his arm.

“Yeah? Why? Do I not look okay?”

“Alec. You look horribly pale and those bags under your eyes. They look painful.”

“Do they?” Alec felt short of breath, suddenly. His vision began to go blurry at the edges. “I- Magnus.” Alec slumped against the wall to his left and sat down before his weakening legs gave out. He could hear Magnus saying his name, but very little else as the cold took over his body. “Cold…” He uttered. “It’s… so…” A white light began engulfing his vision as he lost all feeling in his limbs. “Magnus…” He said weakly as Magnus began to fade from his vision.

“Alec!” Magnus said, Alec could barely feel that Magnus was shaking his shoulder before everything went white.


	7. Things That Break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec has an interesting run in with The Conductor while Magnus becomes the next victim of the disappearing passengers. And we begin the walk to the final showdown! DRAMA!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a huge fan of this chapter and I hope you guys like it too. (P.S. I've fully finished writing this fic so I am living)
> 
> As always, let me know what you guys think in the comments. Any feedback is appreciated. :D

The white light began to fade as Alec’s vision returned to him. The blurriness in his eyes fading as the focus returned. He found himself on his back and all of his bones ached, as if he had been stood in one place for hours. He sat himself up and looked around with a groan. He didn’t know where he was, but the room was rocking gently back and forth, so at least he knew he had to still be on the train, somewhere. He thought to himself that he could be in the luggage carriage since it was the only place, that he was aware of, that he hadn’t actually managed to see, other than other people’s rooms.

One of the walls was made, completely, of grey sheet metal and he was surrounded by large crates, making up the other three ‘walls’. Alec forced himself to stand up, his bones burning as he moved. The crates were a little taller than he was, so there wasn’t any possibility of being able to see over the top of them since jumping or pulling himself over the top of them was out of the question for him in his condition. He made a single attempt at trying to move one of the crates, but the weight was too much.

Thankfully, he couldn’t feel the cold anymore. In his mind, he thought that while other people could still feel the cold, maybe it was just after him, to get him to pass out. Alec wondered how he managed to get where he was, he remembered that he passed out just after he found Magnus in carriage D. His stomach began to turn as he thought of Magnus. Where could Magnus have gotten to? Did maybe he pass out as well? Was it the person who sent the threatening note that caused all of this to happen?

The carriage rocked forcefully on the tracks, knocking Alec off of his feet. Crashing sounded throughout the room in time with the crash. He placed a hand over his ribs in time with the burning in his bones. He looked over to his left, noticing one of the crates in the corner was damaged, with one of the panels looking loose, like he might be able to pull it off and see what was inside. And if he was lucky enough, the other side might have been broken as well, letting him escape a little further.

Alec forced himself back onto his feet and stumbled over to the loose panel. He lifted a hand and tried pulling it away, sending pricks of pain throughout his arm. He let out a pained groan as the train rocked again, he managed to stay on his feet and was knocked back into the wall, pulling the panel off in the process. He had hoped that removing the panel would have created a hole bigger than the one, the size of a two by four, that was made. Peering through the hole, Alec could see through, completely, to the other side of the crate as it was missing a side completely. Alec thought to himself that he could get out if he could just break a little more of the crate so that he could climb through.  
Alec felt around his pockets to try and find his stele, to no avail. At the point he was at, he wasn’t bothered about whether the crates belonged to anyone, all he wanted was to get out and find Magnus. There was nothing on the ground around Alec that he could use to help break down the crate, so all he could do was pull the crate apart with his hands. Alec sighed to himself as the train rocked gently a few times.

The sound of a door opening came from what sounded like the far end of the carriage. Not knowing who it was or where he was, Alec thought it would be a smarter choice to try and stay out of sight. He knelt on the ground so he would be out of sight of anyone who would walk by. The pain seared through his bones and he knelt. Footsteps sounded and Alec realised that the plank that he had pulled off the crate was on the floor by him and if the person who was walking through the carriage looked through the crate. His bones burned as he stood back up, picking the plank up with him. It felt physically heavy as he placed it back where it was. If the train rocked too violently, then the plank would surely fall off again. And whoever it was would be able to see that Alec is conscious, then who knows what might happen to him. His mind raced and landed on the idea that he should lie back down so that if the person walking through the carriage was the one who put him there, then they would still think he was unconscious.

The footsteps became louder and louder until they were on the other side of one of the crates before a phone rang and the person sighed.

“Hello?” Alec couldn’t quite make out the voice. “He’s still in here, as far as I’m aware.” The person speaking’s voice was quiet, almost a whisper. “Well, I’ll check on him, Sir. Just to be sure, don’t worry… Yes. Right now.” A few footsteps sounded as the person walked around to the crate Alec had broken. He heard a few creaking sounds. “He’s still here. Still knocked out… I know, I would have expected more from such a big guy. I didn’t think he’d go down so easily. Or be out for so long.” The voice sighed. “Well does it matter? I can defend myself against him. I have magic, he doesn’t. It’s just his boyfriend, Magnus, that’s going to be a problem. It’s-,“ The voice sighed again. “You’re no fun. If would let me have it my way, I’d just kill ‘em both and be done with it… I know. But if your method takes too long, then I’m using the enchantment, all I need is the steel and the gold… Fine. And one last thing, Thea’s back. What do you want me to do with her? Understood, I’ll report back, soon, sir.” A click sounded and the footsteps resumed and got quieter until a door at the far end of the carriage opened and closed.

\---

Alec chose to remain on the ground for a few more seconds before standing back up. The pain in his bones faded a little from before, but his bones still hurt as he stood. He went immediately back to the crate and pulled the plank back off. The train rocked violently again, breaking another plank off of the crate and widening the gap to the other side. Alec took hold of one of the planks and with another rock of the carriage, Alec felt forward, into the crate and took the side of it with him.

He laid on the floor, groaning for a second before looking back up. The other side of the crate was non-existent, allowing him to crawl his way through the crate and out of the area he woke up in. Alec forced himself onto his feet and brushed saw dust off his left leg and took a quick look around. He took a few steps and noticed a couple of cages filled with bags. He was in the luggage carriage. Alec thought to himself that this must have been behind the locked door in the shower carriage he tried to get into before.

The large crates that he had been trapped behind had to have been the silhouettes that he saw when he used his Voyance rune before he fell unconscious to the cold, he thought to himself. He could see the door that the voice left through. Alec thought for a second that maybe he didn’t want to go through that door so soon after the voice had left through it. He turned around and could see a door at the other end of the carriage. Filled with curiosity, he walked down towards the other door, passing cage after cage of luggage. He stopped at the door, taking a moment to pause before opening it up and walking straight through.

Alec made more noise walking through the door than he intended to, stumbling as he hurried through. The first thing Alec noticed was a large console beneath a sprawling window at the front of the room, with the landscape rushing by. He was at the very front of the train.

“Excuse me?” A voice said, shocked from the right of Alec. “How did you get in here?” Alec turned to face the voice. The voice came from The Conductor himself standing before a plush chair, the same shade of red as the hallways in the carriages.

“I… uhh? Where am I?” Alec asked.

“You’re at the very front of the train, young man. And normally passengers aren’t allowed up here.” The Conductor was wearing a suit that looked the same as the one he was wearing the night he made his speech to the passengers. “So, I ask you again. How did you get in here?” Alec felt flustered. He knew that he didn’t make his way into the luggage carriage on purpose and he didn’t know whether The Conductor would believe anything that he told him, but figured it was probably worth a shot anyway.

“I… fell unconscious in one of the carriages. Because of the cold.” The Conductor has an immediate look of concern on his face. “Then the next thing I knew I woke up with all the luggage.”

“All the cold? What do you mean? We’re not due to make it to Araelia until this evening. It’s not cold yet.”

“Wait! This evening? It’s Wednesday?”

“Why, yes?” The Conductor’s face turned a little more rigid. “Why is that so strange? It’s was Tuesday yesterday, therefore it is Wednesday today.”

“No.” Alec shook his head. “The cold was yesterday and I fainted yesterday.”

“Well you seem okay, right now. Are you properly hydrated?” The Conductor walked over to a cupboard close to his chair and pulled out a bottle of water and offered it to Alec who shook his hand to refuse it. “And there should be no part of the train that is cold, at least, not until we reach Araelia.”

“But it was the cold that made me faint.” Alec’s voice began to sound a little desperate.

“Wouldn’t it need to be almost deathly cold for it to make you faint? If the train ever got that cold, then I think I would have heard something of it from some of my staff.” The Conductor sighed. “I think all of these things and with poor Mr. Harmone mysteriously going missing is really getting to you, isn’t it?”

“No, it’s just- forget it. Can I just go?”

“Well I’m not going to stop you, Alec.” Alec squinted at The Conductor. “But, everything you’ve just told me. You should really be careful that you don’t faint again.”

“Alright… Thank you.” Alec said hesitantly before backing away and walking back towards the door.

“And one final thing.” Alec turned around.

“You might want to be careful of where you step on this train. And you really shouldn’t stick your nose in places it doesn’t belong.” Alec squinted at The Conductor. Not saying anything, he walked out as quickly as possible.

\---

As Alec walked back through the luggage carriage, he noticed that the carriage was beginning to become cold again, the same cold that caused him the faint previously. Panic rushed through his body and his bones were still burning as he sped up his walk towards the door. To his relief, the door wasn’t locked and only needed him to press down on a bar to open it up, letting him back into carriage A. The plush décor had never seemed to sweet.

Without wasting any time stopping, Alec continued walking at the same pace with bones burning towards carriage B. If it was Wednesday morning like The Conductor had said, then Magnus would still be on board somewhere. In Alec’s head, there would only be two places that Magnus would be on the entire train, their room or the dining carriage. His first stop would be their room.

As Alec pushed through the door into carriage B, he noticed that the cold had followed him out of the luggage carriage. His breathing quickened as he knocked on the door in rapid succession.

“Magnus! Magnus! If you’re in there, please. Open the door.” Tears began to fill Alec’s eyes. As his knocks became harder. A white fog petered its way slowly down the hallway, coming from the dining carriage. Alec looked to the right, noticing the fog slithering its way across the floor. “No.” He said quietly to himself. The tears began to roll down his cheeks. “Magnus. Please.” His voice began to crack. The fog began to wrap itself around Alec’s right leg and the cold began to take over. “This can’t be real.” Alec breathed to himself. 

He felt a light feeling pressing against his left leg. Looking down, he noticed that a group of three Mites were jumping and trying to tackle him over. Two of the Mites began to jump away, towards the dining carriage and the third jumped up and down in place a couple of times before following the other two. The third of the Mites stopped at the end of the hall, jumping up through the fog by the door. Alec began to choke on the fog. It was taking over his body. Not wasting any more time, Alec began walking, stumbling along the way down the hall, following the Mites.

Through the door and into the dining carriage, the fog was thicker and the room was completely empty and Alec’s vision was rapidly depleting, just like the vision. The Mites were jumping up and down on the tables so that Alec could see.

“What do you want from me?” He stuttered, before limping after them. They jumped from table to table and stopped again at the door. Using all of his strength, he forced the door into carriage D open. The fog was nowhere near as thick as it was in carriage B or the dining carriage, it was still pouring in from the windows and the doorway behind him, however. The Mites continued jumping down the hallway and Alec followed. The Mites stopped in front of the doorway leading into room D-4. Alec had lost almost all his strength. His right leg finally gave in outside room D-3, but the Mites kept jumping.

With the sound of glass shattering, Thea emerged from D-4 wearing the cyan halter dress she was wearing the first night Alec saw her. He looked up at her, tears streaming down his face.

“Thea…” He said weakly.

“Come on, Alec. Stay with me for this.” She stepped towards him, forcefully grabbing his arm and pulling him towards her as the fog thickened around him. She pulled him into the room, pushing him down on the floor. With what little energy he had left, he looked up to see her holding her hand up, a blue aura surrounding them. The blue aura promptly transferred into the doorway followed by her slamming the door. “Thank, God.” Thea said, sighing and the slumped onto the floor.

“Thea, are you okay?” A voice asked from behind Alec. It was Mona van Thwait. She walked over to Thea and helped her back up. Alec still dazed on the ground, not sure what to think.

“I’m fine, Mona. Thank you. What about Alec?” Thea said as the two turned around to face him. “Are you okay, Alec? You still with us?” She knelt down by his side and helped Alec up into a sitting position.

“I- I’m…” Alec uttered between breaths. “Where’s Magnus? And what the hell is going on?”

“I don’t know.” Thea said, rubbing her forehead. “This fog. It just came out of nowhere and all the passengers just straight up disappeared, Magnus included.” Thea sighed. “I’m sorry, Alec.” Thea stood back up, helping Alec up with her. “In fact, you and Mona are the only two I’ve been able to even find. Or bring back, or whatever.” Alec’s mind raced, he had no idea what to even say.

“Are we gonna be okay, Thea?” Mona asked as she tied her black hair into a ponytail.

“I’m not sure.” Thea said, folding her arms and biting her thumb. “I can keep the fog out. And I can have my Mites look around the train to try and find anyone else. But I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

Mona and Thea looked at one another in silence briefly before Mona walked over to the bed to look out of the window.

“Can you not use a portal?” Alec asked quietly.

“I’ve already tried. I tried to get Mona somewhere safe, but for whatever reason, it didn’t work.” Thea shrugged. “But my wards did. Only some of my powers are working.”

“There has to be something we can do.” Alec said, hoping. “The passengers have to be out there. Maybe they’re shut in another room?”

Thea shrugged again. She walked over to her suitcase and threw it up on the desk in the room, opening it up and began to rifle through her belongings. She threw clothing item after clothing item onto her bed. Mona took each and began to put them in piles based on what they were.

“You’re still doing that, Mona?” A booming voice said. Alec recognised it instantly, the same voice he heard in the luggage carriage.

“Mom?” Mona questioned. “Mom! Where are you? Are you okay?” Mona’s voice getting shaky.

“You needn’t worry about me. I’m doing perfectly. And I have almost everything I need.”

“Mom. Where are you? Help us, please?”

“Oh, now I can’t do that, sweetie.” Jennifer chuckled menacingly. “I need all of you to stay right where you are, otherwise my boss won’t be very pleased.”

“Your boss?” Alec and Thea said in unison. The sound of shattering echoed through the room. “The wards!” Thea said, almost gasping. Jennifer chuckled again as the fog began leaking under the doorframe. “No.”

“MOM! What’s going on?!”

“You’ll find out soon enough, Mona. Now please, do be quiet.” A crash sounded as Mona collapsed on the ground. Both Alec and Thea tried to run over to her but found themselves stuck in place. “As for the two of you. I need you to stay away from my daughter.”

“What are you doing?” Alec said feebly.

“Finally getting what I deserve.” Jennifer said with force. “I’ve gotten almost everyone besides you three. And between all of the passengers, you’re bound to have all the items for the enchantment that I need.

“Enchantment?” Thea said through coughs as the fog climbed Alec’s and her body. “What?” The fog climbed up around Alec’s neck as his vision began to fade again.

“I expected more from the two of you. I know that mundanes are built merely as things that break. But a Shadowhunter and a warlock, I’m disappointed.”

“Where… are… you…?” Thea uttered before she collapsed. In Alec’s vision, she was nothing more than a cyan blob as she fell. He could see three black circles bouncing up and down and heard squeaking before all of his senses were consumed by the fog.

Then everything was white.

Again.


	8. Girls Like Us

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Both Alec and Magnus finally reach Araelia, just not in the fashion that they had initially intended.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, friends. This is another chapter that I'm a huge fan of. It's another one that's a little intense. I've also got an idea for my next fic and I'm thinking it's going to be a Malec college AU.
> 
> As always, let me know what you think in the comments :D

Cold was the only thing that Alec could feel. His face and entire body were chilled. He pushed himself up and realised he had been laying, face down, in snow. He brushed his face a couple of times before looking around. Snow was rapidly falling and the wind almost at a gale force. The fog that had taken him down twice before was swirling around on the ground at his feet.

He noticed that he was wearing a black sweater that he wasn’t wearing before. He was thankful, wherever it came from as the cold would have been unbearable without it. Looking around himself, his vision wouldn’t allow him to see further than a few feet around him. Wherever he was, it was cold and he was alone. There was nothing in his pockets that he could feel, so there was nothing he could use besides his fists to fight. He thought to himself that there was a good chance that he was somewhere close to Araelia. He didn’t have a clue where Araelia was but he had to be close. If he made it to the snowy town, then even if he had missed the train when it was supposed to stop off he would still be able to catch it on the way back.

The wind blowing began to slow down. As the wind speed dropped, Alec’s visibility increased. He could see the rear end of the train in the distance, near a small collection of buildings. He was right about where he was. And if he hurried, he could make it back to the train. Taking a few steps he stopped himself, noticing that he wasn’t getting any closer to the train.

“What the hell is happening?” Alec said to himself quietly.

The ground began to rumble beneath Alec’s feet and a shining light, similar to the one he saw previously before, in his vision formed in front of him about ten feet off the ground. The light formed into a ball that rapidly grew and formed dark silhouettes. The ball quickly exploded, sending glittering shards through the air and revealing Jennifer van Thwait, floating in the air, in what looked almost like a black wedding gown. She remained in the air as she looked down at Alec before dropping to the ground causing it to rumble a second time. She lifted right hand towards Alec and he felt himself freeze in place.

Another three, smaller balls of light formed behind Jennifer that grew and shattered far quicker than Jennifer’s, revealing Mona, Thea and Magnus. All three of which fell to the ground immediately. Too weak to properly stand. All three of the writhing on the ground behind Jennifer before she threw her left hand behind her to pick up Mona and drag her towards her.

“Come on now, sweetie. I’d like you to see all of this.” Jennifer boomed.

“Mom?” Mona said weakly. “What are you doing?” Her body was being held upright with her arms locked down her body.

“Because, Mona. Girls like us need to sort our lives out. After your father cheated on me, he took so much from us and I’m just trying to get it back.” Alec could do nothing but listen.

“Did you do all of this? The train? The fog?” Jennifer sighed towards her daughter.

“I did. But don’t worry about it, I had good reason.” Alec could see Magnus standing up behind Jennifer.

“Good reason?” Magnus said weakly. “You’ve hurt people… And you’ve stolen from them… For what?” Magnus breathed heavily. “Because you’re angry at someone?”

“That’s reason enough!” Jennifer said with a scowl. She released Alec before moving to her hand over to Magnus and holding him in place. “He hurts us. This is a step to getting my revenge.”

“But… Mom…” Mona’s voice cracked.

“Be quiet, Mona. This doesn’t concern you.” Alec searched the ground around him for anything that he could possibly use for a weapon. A stick, a rock, even a shard of ice would have worked. Jennifer had completely turned herself around and begun walking towards Mona, completely disregarding Alec.

As Jennifer was stood in front of Mona, completely engulfing her with her stature from Alec’s perspective, Alec picked up a large rock and began running towards Jennifer with it in his right hand. Jennifer had begun speaking to Mona and in an attempt to distract her, Alec threw the rock near Jennifer, to her left. The rock landed by her left foot, making her look down to investigate the noise. And out the corner of her eye she noticed Alec charging towards her with a stoic look on his face. She turned to face Alec and made and attempt to stop him. But she was too late as Alec crashed into her knocking her to the ground, releasing her grips on Magnus and Mona.

“Get off me you OAF!” Jennifer roared as she attempted to push Alec off her. Her eyes turned completely black, contrasting against her porcelain skin as she pushed Alec, sending him flying and landing on his back. “Impudent child.” She held out a hand and dragged Alec off the floor, back towards her to the point where she was holding him off the ground by his neck. Alec was left struggling for breath as his legs flailed. “People like you, thinking that you can push us around.”

“Mom, stop.” Mona said, her voice rising. “Put him down.”

“Mona. I’ve told you countless times. Be quiet.” Jennifer commanded, without turning her head. While Thea remained unconscious, Magnus had managed to fully stand up and was stood just behind Mona, racking his brain with how he could save Alec. Seeing how Alec charged at Jennifer and how she proceeded to throw him off, there was no way that he could take her down, physically. Mona took a step forward and planted her feet firmly in the ground.

“You might want to cover your ears.” She said quietly to Magnus. “Mom.” Her voice began to rise again. “Put. Him. DOWN.” Her voice rose with each word and on the word ‘down’ a shockwave exploded from her mouth and flew through the air before hitting Jennifer directly in her back. The impact caused her to drop Alec and caused her to drop to her knees and sparks of blue electric appear around her body. “Now!” Mona yelled. “Hit her now!”

Alec, unsure as to whether Mona was talking to him or not, stood back up on his feet, starving for air. He braced himself and readied his stance. He bent forward and hit Jennifer with a single uppercut to the jaw, knocking her backwards with a grunt, into the snow. Alec stepped forward and lifted his boot before bringing it down on Jennifer, who dissipated into a cloud of black smoke at the last moment.

“How DARE YOU?” Jennifer boomed as she reappeared, floating in the sky, above everyone. “Mona. After everything I’ve done for you.” Her voice sounded distorted as if she was speaking through a filter. “This is how you repay me? And these people. You don’t even know them? And you’re fighting with them?” Jennifer sent a ball of light flying into the ground that sent a small shockwave through the bodies of the people on the ground, bringing them all into the same position, on their knees, that she was just in.  
“I don’t care, Mom. I just want you to stop doing this. You’re hurting people.”

“I’ve told you, Mona. I’m only doing this so that we can be safe. I’m only hurting the people that want to hurt us and-“

“You, Mom.” Mona interrupted. “You’re hurting the people that hurt you and the people who are trying to stop you from hurting anyone else. You see Thea over there? She saved me.”

“No. She didn’t. A warlock like her would never do anything for good.” Alec could feel the paralysis beginning to weaken. And he could see that Magnus had noticed the same thing.

“But she did. When you released YOUR fog into the train. She was the one that saved me. I would have died in there if she hadn’t found me. And I would have died because of YOU, Mom.”

“I would never hurt you, Mona. You know that.” Jennifer began charging another white ball. “But I can’t allow you to sympathise for other Downworld factions.” She threw the white ball of light at the unconscious Thea. As the ball hit her in the back, she was engulfed in the light. It faded almost instantly, leaving a bare patch of snow where Thea’s body was. “And now she can’t hurt you anymore.”

“I told you. She never hurt ME.” Mona fired another shockwave. Jennifer dissipated into another cloud, dodging it. Then re-appearing directly in front of Mona and Magnus.  
“You.” Jennifer said, looking up at Magnus as she grabbed Mona’s right arm. “You’re Downworld scum as well, aren’t you?”

“Now that’s hardly fair, is it?” Magnus said, with a smirk on his face. “We barely know each other.” Mona disappeared in a black cloud, just like Jennifer before. Allowing Magnus to extend his palm and release a pulse of red energy from him palm, knocking Jennifer back again. “Alec.” Magnus said running over to join Alec, pulling him into a tight hug.

“You have no idea how happy I am to see you, Magnus, but now is not the time. We need to stop her and whatever she’s doing, now.” Magnus nodded.

“I got you a present, by the way.” Magnus said, snapping his fingers. Suddenly he held a quiver of arrows in one hand and a bow slung over his should which he promptly handed to Alec. “The arrows, they’re specially enchanted to take down demons.”

“She’s a demon? I’ve never seen anything like that before.” Alec said, between breaths.

“That seems to be a theme this vacation.” Magnus said before turning around to face Jennifer who was just standing back up on her feet. “Now I promised you this would be nice, Alec. So, I’m going to make sure it is.” Magnus held his hand back out and held Jennifer in place, pushing her down to her knees. “Who were you planning to kill with the enchantment?”

“Enchantment?” Jennifer growled. “Is that what those items were for? The ones my boss asked me to get for him.”

“Your boss?” Alec asked as he raised his bow and readied an arrow.

“She’s probably just saying that to try and save herself.”

“I’m not.” Jennifer said, forcing her way back to her feet, through Magnus’ magic. “My boss paid my way onto the train. And all he wanted in return was that I get the four items that he wanted.” Jennifer coughed a few times, spitting blood out of her mouth. “The soul, the possession, the gold and the steel.”

“But other than the soul.” Magnus began. “None of those items are particularly difficult to come by. So why would he need you to do it?”

“I don’t know.” She sighed. Alec began shifting on his feet. “Maybe he didn’t want to be at fault for getting someone’s soul. Or maybe he felt sorry for my daughter and I. We weren’t in a good position when he found us.”

“And it seems like Mona is the only one in a bad position with you now.” Alec said. Jennifer began pushing against Magnus’ magic.

“How dare you?! I’ve done nothing but help her throughout her life.” She growled.

“Help her? You practically killed her.” Magnus added.

“I would never and I-“

“I don’t care.” Magnus interrupted. “Alec, do it.” With Magnus’ words, he released a single arrow from his bow and sent it flying through the air towards Jennifer. Her eyes widened as the arrow landed directly in her chest. “Nice shot.” Magnus added, causing a smile to creep over Alec’s face. Jennifer’s face flashed as if lightning was shooting through her body.

“You’ll be sorry. And he’ll hurt you far worse than I ever could have.” She said, her voice sounding pained and further distorted. The flashing sped up. She let out an earth-shattering scream, that shook the ground as the flashing caused cracks on her skin that white light poured out of before the white light engulfed her completely in an explosion.

The explosion settled. All the snow stopped falling and the wind stopped blowing. The world stood in silence for a second before snowflakes began to fall gently from the sky, without the wind. Alec dropped the bow onto the ground and threw his arms around Magnus, squeezing him tight.

“As much as I’m appreciating this, right now. I don’t think that this is over, Alec.” Magnus sighed. “She might have been lying about having a boss who wanted her to gather the items, but I wouldn’t want to take the chance that there is someone out there more powerful than her who’s after this enchantment.”

“Yeah.” Alec sounded disappointed as he let go of Magnus. “You’re ri- what’s all that over there?” Alec pointed over towards the ground where Jennifer had been stood. A glimmer of light came from the spot. “Is that?”

“A knife?” Magnus said, picking up the knife with name ‘Carrie’ engraved into it. “Carrie?”

“That’s the chef. The one who lost their knife. Is that bracelet around here as well?” Alec asked, moving away from Magnus to dig through the snow. “I promise the bartender that I’d at least make an effort to look for it.” Alec turned to Magnus. “Could you help, at least?”

“Help find this, you mean?” Magnus said, holding up the exact bracelet Alec was looking for. “Come on, Alec. Can we get back to the train, now? It’s getting a little too chilly for my liking.” He said, brushing snowflakes out of his hair. Alec sighed, he brushed snow off his jeans as he stood back up.

“Absolutely.” Magnus walked past Alec, taking his hand into his own. “So, when we got separated. Where did you end up?” Alec turned his face to look at Magnus who had a sombre look on his face.

“I’ll tell you when we get back on the train, okay?” Magnus sighed. “I’d also like to know where Mona and Thea ended up. “Mona, I presume, warped away somewhere, like her mother could do. But I don’t have a clue where Thea could have ended up. Or whether she’s even alive.”

The two of them walked the remained of the distance in silence, holding one another’s hand. Now that Jennifer was gone, they were able to make it back to where the train was parked, comfortably in the Araelia station. They reached a set of stairs at the edge of the platform and climbed it promptly. Despite having already figured out that they were in Araelia they looked up at the single sign that stood on the platform that said the word ‘Araelia’ on it.

A bulletin board, with a map of the snowy town stood directly to the right of the sign. The map showed that other than the train station, a few small shops and what looked to be labelled as a diner, there was very little of anything in Araelia. It stood as a place that someone wouldn’t really want to end up getting stuck at in their life as there would be very little chance of ever leaving. Magnus let go of Alec’s hand to rub his arms.

“Can we get back on the train now? See if anyone else made it back because this cold cannot be good for my skin.” Alec nodded and the two turned around to face to train. The first two of the doors that they tried were completely frozen shut by the cold. As they walked down to the third door, a couple of familiar voices could be heard. The voices of Carrie and Andrew floated through the door and Alec instantly felt a little better. “Come on.” Magnus said, yanking at the door before almost pulling it off its hinges and falling backwards into Alec’s arms. He looked up at Alec. “Not the worst outcome, I guess.” He said, with a smile.”

“Come on.” Alec said, blushing. As he pushed Magnus back up and into the train. “Now, what actually happened when we got separated?”


	9. Good on You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After taking a wander around the town of Araelia, Alec and Magnus live in the aftermath of the battle that they faced just to find that they are faced with a new threat that wants them dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lads and people who are not lads. As is tradition (please don't question this) let me know what you think in the comments. :D

The train was warm. How Magnus and Alec had missed being somewhere warm. While Magnus seemed happy to be back on board, Alec remained a little hesitant after being separated from Magnus. The two of them walked back to their room, without hesitation and still in possession of Carrie and Andrew’s items. They told each other that they would give them back the next day, or just later.

Magnus sighed as he walked in the room and sat down on the bed.

“So, I know you want me to tell you what happened to me when we got separated, but I can’t really tell you anything because I’m not entirely sure.”

“What do you mean?” Alec said as he shut the door and sat on the bed beside Magnus.

“I mean exactly what I said. I’m not entirely sure what happened. Before I fell out into the snow, all I could really see was a white light. Honestly, for a while I thought that I might have been- y’know, dead.”

“Well, I’m glad that you’re not.” Alec smiled.

“Thank you, Alec. And thank you for saving, not only me, but perhaps everyone, as well.” Alec began to blush again. “What you did was amazing. I still have no idea what kind of demon Jennifer was. Perhaps if we ever see Mona again I could ask her.”

“I- uhh, thank you?” Alec stuttered, causing Magnus a grow a childish smile on his face.

“But what I want to know, if you can tell me,” Magnus placed a finger on Alec’s chest and began drawing small circles, “is what happened to YOU when we got separated. Something must have happened since you managed to save me.”

Alec kicked his shoes off before lifting his feet up onto the bed into a cross-legged position. Magnus followed suit and did the same thing. Alec proceeded to explain to Magnus about how he woke up, thinking that he was alone. About how the fog leaked into the train and began to freeze his body and ruin his vision.

“If it isn’t too much. How much of what happened was like your vision?” Magnus asked.

“Well, you didn’t kill me. So, what actually happened in the snow what far better than my vision. But in my vision, it was you and Thea and clearly, she didn’t have anything to do with this. And like I said, in the vision it was all on the train, I had no clue that we would end up in Araelia like that. Or even Jennifer would have anything to do with it. I genuinely had no idea that she was going to be any trouble.”

“Well.” Magnus started as he placed his hands onto Alec’s legs. “I don’t think that she should be causing any problems for us anymore, or at least for a good while.”

“But don’t we need to still figure out who Jennifer’s boss is?” Alec said, placing his hands on top of Magnus’.

“Of course we do. But, I think, at least for tonight, we can both relax. I don’t think that anyone is going to be getting in our way.” Magnus said, taking his hands out from under Alec’s.

“Do you think that we could hold off for a second? I’d like to give Carrie and Andrew their stuff back since I don’t really feel that comfortable keeping a missing knife around, in our room. Especially when there’s people actively looking for it.” Magnus looked a little disappointed.

“Sure, go for it.”

“But don’t worry. I’m gonna come right back. Then it’ll be just you and me, Magnus. I promise.” Alec said, standing up off the bed and wrapping the knife in a t-shirt he picked up off the floor.

Alec walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. He took a few steps down the hallway before stopping again. He took a moment just to take in the fact that he was back on board the train and he could finally hear the chatter of other passengers, quietly through the walls. He sighed to himself as he looked out of the window. The grey sky was still dropping snow, he had heard that Araelia had snow all year round. He thought to himself the he would have like the chance to actually take a look around the snowy town, but after his run-in, he wasn’t entirely sure how much time he would actually have and he didn’t want to talk to The Conductor again after essentially breaking into the very front carriage.

\---

The door opened and Alec walked into the dining carriage and looked over the entire carriage. Patrons were sat at some of the tables eating and drinking as if nothing had ever happened. A few of the windows were opened and the cold blended with the heat from Carrie’s station where steam was rising from various pans.

For the number of people in the carriage eating and for the number of pans Carrie had going at once, Alec was surprised to see that the bar was completely devoid of passengers. Andrew was stood cleaning a glass, staring out of the window opposite the bar. With both the knife and the bracelet to return, Alec walked over to the bar.

“Hey. Andrew.” Alec started. Andrew snapped out of staring into space and looked at Alec.

“Oh hey, it’s you. Can I help you with something?” He asked.

“Actually,” Alec said, pulling the bracelet out of his pocket, “I found this. And thought that you’d probably want it back.” Andrew’s eyes widened as he put the glass down he was cleaning. Alec passed the bracelet over the bar.

“You found it?” He looked at the bracelet as though it was the most valuable possession on board the entire train. “You have no idea how much this means to me, man. Thank you so much. I felt so bad for losing it and now when I get back home, my little sister is gonna be so happy that I still have it.” Andrew slid the bracelet over his hand, back onto his wrist. “If there’s anything that I could ever do for you, man, let me know.” He sighed with a smile. “I owe you one.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Alec waved him off, looking over at Carrie who was having the waitress take the plates she served away. “I’ll see you later.” He said. Andrew nodded in response as Alec walked over to Carrie.

“Hey. You.” Carrie said, smiling at Alec. “Whatcha got there?” She asked, referring to the t-shirt that Alec was holding.

“It’s actually something that I’m pretty sure you’ll be happy to see.” He said, handing the t-shirt over to Carrie.

“Alright?” She said, hesitantly as she unwrapped the shirt. She gasped. “Oh my, God! My knife.” She looked up at Alec. She stopped herself, realising how loud she said what she had just said. “Where did you find it?” Her voice quietened down. Alec racked his brain, if it had seemed like no one realised that anything had actually happened, then he couldn’t tell her about what Jennifer had actually done to everyone.

“I… uhh, when I was taking a look around, I ended up talking to some guy, Joseph, I think?”

“Oh, him.”

“Apparently, he found it somewhere. I told him that I was looking for it and he gave it to me, in that shirt, to give to you.”

“I am so happy you found this for me.” She sighed. “Thank you. So much. Y’know, when this trip was over, I was going to go back home and give this back to my mother. She loves things that show off how her kids are doing.”

“Really?” Alec said, wondering whether he would be able to leave yet or whether she was going to tell her more.

“Yeah. I know it sounds strange.” She sighed. “I should probably let you go, right? We’ve still got a good few hours left here. You’ve still got a little time to look around Araelia if you’d want. We don’t leave until seven.”

“Cool.” Alec began to back away. “I’ll go let my,“ he stopped suddenly as he crashed into the person behind him. “Oh… Sorry.” He said, turning around and realising it was Magnus he had crashed into. “Magnus. I was just heading back.”

“It’s okay, Alec. I heard, Carrie, was it?” Magnus asked and Carrie nodded. “I heard her say we have a few hours to kill. So why don’t we take a walk? Maybe, you know, this can finally be a nice vacation for us. Now that Jennifer is gone. What do you say? Care to take a walk?” Alec sighed in relief.

“I’d love to. I should get changed, though. Give me a sec?”

“But of course.” Magnus said, smiling.

\---

Alec stood outside, under the awning on the train platform, waiting for Magnus. Alec hadn’t changed any of his clothes. Same dark navy jeans, same black sweater. The only this he had actually added was a high end, black, coat that Magnus bought for him from some high-end boutique, back in New York. Alec moved his hands into his pockets to try and retain the last little bits of warmth in his body. He turned around to look into the Araelia town square.

The sky, while still grey from the snow clouds, had turned a much lighter shade of grey. Snow danced down, gently, from the sky and fell down onto the ground. A cream coloured, stone fountain stood in the very centre of the town with the water no longer flowing as it was completely frozen from the cold. Snow had covered the ground around the fountain in a clean layer, as if no one had been outside all day, with only the paths uncovered. Terracotta buildings, none of which were more than two stories tall surrounded the fountain. The two buildings that faced the train platform on the far end of the fountain looked to be small boutiques, from what Alec could see.

Alec turned back around when he heard a door open behind him and saw Magnus walking out of the train in a beige coat and black skinny jeans with his hair perfectly made that withstood the wind as he walked out.

“Nice coat.” Magnus said. “Looks good on you. It’s nice to see you in something, well, nice for a change.”

“It’s the coat you got me, Magnus, I’m aware.” Alec said, smiling. “I think it looks good, as well. Thank you. Now, you ready to go?”

“Let’s go.” Magnus said walking up to Alec and taking his arm, walking the two of them down the stairs off the platform, down into the snow and onto the only path towards the fountain.

The snow was still falling and as the two walked towards the fountain the snow landed in their hair. They stopped just in front of the fountain, looking into the frozen water. Magnus snapped his finger and shattered the layers of ice in the fountain, temporarily getting the water to run again. Through the water, Magnus and Alec could see a few coins on the bed of the stone. Snowflakes landed in the water, creating ripples in the water that expanded over the surface, sending waves over the colours of the coins.

A family walked out of one of the terracotta buildings around the fountain, the two children running off down the path between two buildings, the parents speeding up their pace behind them and one of the parents almost falling as they follow. Magnus looked over to Alec to see him watching the family as they walked out of sight from the fountain. Magnus touched Alec’s arm and pointed over to his right, over to a bakery and began walking with Alec towards it.

The two of them walked back out of the bakery, Magnus had a bag in his hand full of baked goods. Ignoring every other place in Araelia, the two of them walked back towards the train. The cold of Araelia felt far harsher on their skin than the cold of New York. A pamphlet inside of the bakery mentioned that Araelia got snow all year round, meaning that the residents of the town were used to the cold and thicker skin. The woman behind the counter told the two of them that their bakery specialised in goods with extra sugar to help with the cold.

Warmth poured out of the door of the train. Alec and Magnus stepped back onto the train, it was as if they stepped through a veil as the cold was completely eliminated. Alec sighed, shaking his hands out. He took the lead as the two of them walked back towards their room. Through the dining carriage, practically everyone had left, minus the people working and an elderly couple, stood talking to Andrew who pointed towards Alec as he was walking down towards them. The elderly couple turned around, it was Angelique and her husband. Angelique, in tears, walked up to Alec and Magnus.

“Oh, you two.” She put her hands around the both of them. “My husband, he’s back. And he said that he heard your voice before he found his way back onto the train.” She wiped a few tears from her eyes. “I take that as I must have you to thank for this.” Carrie leaned over and whispered something to Andrew before the both of them breaking into a smile. “You two are the most wonderful people I have met in a long time. There has to be some way I can repay you.”

“Oh, no. Don’t worry about it.” Alec said, waving Angelique off.

“And I mean, I did tell you that he would turn up, didn’t I?” Magnus said. She wiped a few more tears from her face.

“You did.” She laughed feebly to herself. “I’m just so happy that he’s here.” She took her husband’s hand and walked off towards carriage D. “Thank you.” She said, one final time before the they walked through the door.

“Can we head back to our room now?” Alec said. “I really think I need a little time just to sit and relax.”

“I’m not going to say no to that.” Magnus replied, taking the lead as the two of them walked back towards their room. It was a welcome return for the two of them to see the plush, red interiors of the hallway. Alec sighed and rubbed his eyes as they stopped outside of their room. Magnus opened the door and the two of them walked into the room. “Are you serious?!” Magnus said, staring down at a sheet of paper on the floor. Alec walked past Magnus to sit down on the bed before kicking his shoes off, staring down at the paper.

“Jennifer can’t be back already, can she?”

“There’s no way. I don’t think anyone would come back so soon after that.” Magnus said, picking up the note and flipping it over.

'Not bad, getting rid of Jennifer like that. But you’ll be dead before we reach Ash Town. Congratulations for returning everyone’s things back to them as well. But I don’t need any of those items to make that enchantment, I have something much better planned for you two.'

“They’re threatening us.” Magnus said, showing the note to Alec. “So, I guess Jennifer wasn’t lying about having a boss then.” Magnus sighed.

“You’ll be dead?” Alec said before leaning back and sighing. “Why couldn’t Jennifer just be the end of all of this? And we’re basically back to square one again, aren’t we?”

“At least we can rule out Jennifer and Thea.” Magnus shrugged. “So we’re technically a little better off. Bright side, I suppose?”

“There’s literally no more I could do tonight, Magnus. I have no energy.”

“Don’t worry about it, Alec.” Magnus said. “If you want I could- I could- I have no idea what to do.” Magnus sighed. “I want to say that we could make a start tomorrow, but I have no idea what we could do.” Magnus sat himself down on the bed, next to Alec and threw his shoes off. “I guess we could try and see what’s through that door in the shower carriage near us. But that’s the only thing I could think of.” Alec shot back up and looked at Magnus.

“The Conductor!”

“What? What about him?” Magnus turned to face Alec.

“Remember when I told you about when we got separated? I woke up in the luggage carriage. That’s what was on the other side of that door. And I ended up in the front end of the train, The Conductor didn’t really seem that happy about me being there.” Alec could feel sweat beginning to form on his forehead.

“Not happy? That doesn’t really warrant much, though.”

“He did warn me not to stick my nose in places it doesn’t belong, though.”

“He threatened you?” Magnus said, his voice rising a little. “Alec, that alone is bad enough, but telling you not to ‘stick your nose where is doesn’t belong’, that’s pretty shifty. And seems almost too stereotypically villainous.” Magnus put his left hand on his forehead. “But at this point, I don’t think we should take our chances. We didn’t think anything of Jennifer and look how that turned out.”

“But we shouldn’t go around accusing just anyone.” Alec sighed. “I know that is essentially just going back on what I’ve just said, Magnus.” He groaned. “I’m just so exhausted. I need to sleep.”

“Why don’t I just throw up some wards for tonight? So, we can at least be safe for now.”

“Alright. But I don’t feel good about this, Magnus. What about everyone else on the train? Surely that’s just going to put them in danger if we don’t do anything through the night.”

“But the note only says that we’re going to be dead, Alec.” Magnus looked away briefly. “That didn’t sound how I wanted it to. All I’m saying is, whoever sent this note, I don’t think that they’re after anyone else. Only us. So, I think that we should be safe for tonight. Don’t you?” Magnus smiled, suggestively.

“I… uhh… sure.” Alec stammered, his face flushing with colour. 

“Perfect.” Magnus gave a quick swish of his hands and snapped his fingers and the lights went out.


	10. Kiss Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec finds himself in a strange new environment as he faces off against The Conductor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lads. There's only one more chapter after this then this fic is done! (I've already written it so I know the ending) I hope you enjoy it and let me know what you guys think in the comments :D

The train rocked gently as the morning sun brushed against Alec and Magnus’ skin as the rocking pressed them closer together and rocked Alec awake. His arm was firmly around Magnus, who had his head resting on Alec’s chest.

“Good morning.” Magnus said, sleepily with a hoarse voice. Alec replied, only with a grunt. Magnus leant up off Alec’s chest and placed a kiss, gently on Alec’s lips. “How did you sleep?”

“I think you know.” Alec said with a voice equally as hoarse as Magnus’.

“I do.” He chuckled. “I just wanted you to say it. And look at that, doesn’t look like anyone managed to kill us during the night.”

“Well, you certainly killed something last night.” Alec said quietly.

“Like you’re complaining about that.”

“I definitely am not.” Alec sighed.

Magnus pulled himself up from the bed, rubbing his hand over Alec’s chest as he stood up and got out of bed. Magnus heard Alec give a disappointed sigh as he walked over towards his suitcase. Magnus gave his body a little wiggle, purely for Alec, before picking up the clothes he was wearing the night before. His body almost glistened in the sunlight as he re-dressed himself, much to Alec’s disappointment.

“Sorry to disappoint you, Alec. But you’re probably going to have to get up, as well, at some point.” Magnus said. “We do still have a job to do, not that the job you just did wasn’t fantastic as well.” Alec laughed to himself as he rubbed his hand over his chest. The two of them looked each other in the eyes and smiled.

A folded sheet of paper slid under the door as a shadow passed, the shadow knocking on the door as it went. Alec shot up in bed and Magnus flipped on his feet.

“Here we go again.” Magnus sighed. Alec’s stomach began to turn as he stood up out of bed, he felt his head rush a little as he stood causing a rush of colour around his vision. The morning sunlight came as the most positive thing that stood in the room. Magnus bent down, groaning, as he picked up and opened the letter. He opened the paper and a flash of light came along with it, completely engulfing his vision in white.

“Did they really put a flashbang in that letter?” Alec groaned, squinting and rubbing his eyes.

“It was magic.” Magnus said gravely, blinking a few more times and re-folding the paper before even looking at it. “Whoever did,” Magnus made gestures towards the paper as his vision returned, “this. Has some pretty good magic.” Alec rubbed his eyes once more as his vision returned, with a few flashes around the edge of his eyes.

“Well, how do make a… letter, or sheet of paper or whatever do that?” Alec asked. He took a few steps forward and caught his foot on something cold. Alec, still half asleep, gasped at the feeling and looked down to see what it was. “My stele?” Alec reached down to pick up the stele he had lost in his fight with Jennifer.

“How was that in there? When I picked the paper up it was completely flat.” Magnus stood in disbelief with the sheet, unread, still in his hand.

“Well, what does this one say?” Alec in a dull, tired tone. Magnus unfolded the paper again and read it aloud.

I thought I would allow you two one more night together since this all ends tonight. I’ve had enough of you two and I’ve completed the enchantment. But I shall at least make it a fair fight. So, here’s your stele back, Alec. And now, Magnus, be careful, because I’m gunning for you, first. But if your little boy-toy gets in the way, I won’t hesitate.  
-The Conductor.

“It WAS The Conductor.” Alec said, turning to Magnus, who was looking down at the ground with the letter balled in a fist. “What did he mean he was gunning for you, Magnus? Do you know him?” Magnus remained silent. “Magnus?”

“Sorry…” Magnus said quietly, he moved one hand under his chin and held it with his other hand. “I didn’t recognise him when we saw him make the speech when we boarded.” Magnus began pacing back and forward. “Clearly, I must know him, or have met him at some point during my life,” he stopped pacing and turned to Alec, “I just have no clue who he is.”

“Well whatever is it, I’m not letting him get you. And he made a big mistake returning this.” Alec said, holding up his stele. “He was right about one thing, this does end tonight.”  
“It would be remiss of me, Alexander, to mention that it might be a good idea for you to get dressed first. As much as I appreciate… this.” Magnus said, staring Alec up and down. “I don’t think it would be appropriate for everyone to see.” Alec suddenly became very aware of his lack of clothing and grabbed the nearest item on the floor to cover himself, while Magnus stared at a few of the runes over Alec’s body. “Don’t feel the need to do that on behalf of me.” A smirk creeping onto Magnus’ face.

Alec hurried to dress, leaving an almost disappointed look on Magnus’ face. The two of them, armed with Alec’s stele, the bow and arrows that Magnus picked back up after the fight with Jennifer, Magnus’ magic and whatever supplies Magnus had in his bag, the two of them had no idea what they were facing. While the letter from The Conductor said that everything ended that night, neither of them had any idea at what time things ‘would end’ or what The Conductor had even meant by that. Or even what he was capable of.

Magnus, while Alec went to shower, sat and went through all of his bags in an attempt to make something that could help the two of them. The main problem being, he didn’t know what they would need help with. He assumed that since The Conductor would be gunning for him first and with the paper flashbang, that it was likely that The Conductor had access to some sort of magic. Whether it was his own or someone else’s, Magnus had no clue. He did decide, however, that one of the main things that he should attempt to make, was a recipe that he found in one of his books, for a powder that would make magic a little less effective on the two of them. He was doing this more for Alec than himself with Alec being basically defenceless against magic.

“Hey, what are you making?” Alec asked as he walked back into the room, firmly locking it behind him. He knew good and well that it wouldn’t be good if any of the other passengers or workers on the train saw what the two of them were up to. Magnus was sat on the floor, with a blue tarp on the ground with various products and ingredients spread around.

“I’m trying to make something, or a few things that are going to help us take down The Conductor.” Magnus sighed to himself. “I don’t know who he is, or they are, rather, or what they’re going to try and do so I’ve been covering my bases.” Magnus sat up straighter and looked over the piles of colourful powders over the tarp. “I’ve made various antidotes and anti-magic powders. But I couldn’t tell you if any of these things are going to be any help.” He looked up at Alec. “I also enchanted your bow and the arrows to be a little more damaging. I didn’t think it would be smart to put fire or ice on them because I didn’t know whether he’s going to use some kind of shield. Then there’s-“

“Magnus! Slow down.” Alec said as he kneeled down beside Magnus, being cautious of the powders. “I really appreciate all of this, Magnus. It’s all going to be really helpful. But if you don’t slow down a little, or chill out a bit, there’s no way we’re going to be able to stop him.” Magnus leant back against the bed and sighed.

“You’re right, Alec.” He turned to face Alec, whose face looked soft. “I just don’t want him hurting you. Especially after what Jennifer did.”

“You don’t need to worry about me, this time around.” Alec sat down, crossed-legged. “Remember that it was me who did the majority of the work in taking Jennifer down?” Magnus sighed as he sat up then leant against Alec’s chest.

“Again, you’re probably right. I just don’t want to take any chances.”

“I know what you mean.” Alec said as he put his arms around Magnus. “But we can’t exactly just run into a battle with our hands full. I don’t think that we’re going to need everything that you’ve made.” The train felt almost as if it hit a rock as the room jerked suddenly, knocking almost everything out of place and all but two powders into one another. Magnus sighed at the loss of his work.

“Well, we don’t have to worry about going into battle with our hands full now. Basically, all of these are ruined now.” Magnus sat up, out of Alec’s arms.

“Don’t worry about it, Magnus. What do the last two do?” The first was a golden colour and the second one, a royal blue. “If you know what those two can do then you can at least do something with them.”

“The golden one reflects projectiles and the blue one makes your skin thicker.” Magnus scratched the back of his head before pushing the mixed powders further together before gathering them all into one glass bottle, leaving the golden and blue powders on the tarp. “I think you should take the golden one, I know you’ve got the defence part covered.” Magnus said, referring to the block rune on Alec’s neck.

“Sure.” Alec said. Anything that could help, I guess.” Magnus pulled the golden powder into a cloth, tied it and handed it to Alec. “How does it work? Do I literally just throw it, or something?”

“That’s literally all you have to do. But makes sure you’re in the cloud as you do it.”

“Alright, thanks, Magnus. But what are you gonna do with that bottle of all the other powders?” Alec asked.

“I have no idea. It might be pretty volatile, or I’m hoping it is. There’s some pretty nasty stuff in there.” A thud sounded behind the two of them, against the window. They both turned around to see a Mite, flattened against their window with its eyes glaring in at them. “Is that one of Thea’s?” Magnus said. He folded the tarp over and stood up. “Does that mean that she’s back on board the train?”

“It’s worth a look.” Alec said, picking up his bow and slinging the quiver over his shoulder, keeping the bow in his hand. “Come on, let’s go.”

\---

The two of them walked out the room, locking it behind them. Another thud sounded against the window in front of them. Another Mite. A crash sounded from the direction of carriage A. Both Magnus and Alec nodded at one another before walking into carriage A. The door into the shower carriage laid on the floor amongst piles of dust.

“What the hell is happening?” Alec said, tightening the grip on his bow. Another crash sounded. Alec stood in front of Magnus, putting his arm in front of him. “Is that-?”

A large tendril fired its way through the doorway. The tendril appeared to be pieced together with thousands of Mites, the dust they gave off from their body looked to be working as an adhesive, holding them all together.

“You might want to fire up a couple of your runes, Alec.” Magnus said. Alec nodded. He took his stele from his back pocket and ran it over the block rune. The tendril receded through the doorway, into the luggage carriage. “Come on, let’s do this.” The two of them strode into the luggage carriage, over the cold door to see the tendril sliding up through a vent in the ceiling in the middle of the carriage, between the crates Alec was previously trapped in.

“There was a ladder there?” Alec said, referring to a small, yellow ladder, half way up the wall to the ceiling.

“And we’re going to have to go up there.” Magnus sighed. “This is all happening a little earlier than I would have liked, but we’ve got to work with what we’ve got.” The two of them walked over to the broken crate that Alec left and ducked into the opening. “Come on, give me a boost.” Magnus said. Alec knelt and put his hands together.

“Alright, go.” He gave Magnus a boost up to the ladder. Magnus pulled himself up and out onto the roof and immediately leant back in to give Alec his hand. He pulled Alec up towards the ladder who followed Magnus out onto the roof.

The two of them looked to the right, down the far end of the train and saw nothing, they looked the other way to see a pile of Mites collected above the very first carriage of the train. The Mites changed their shape, creating an archway that revealed The Conductor stood holding a cane. The Conductor took a few steps out of the pile of Mites and raised both arms and twisted his hands into fists, causing the Mites to change their shape once again.

The Mites created two large tendrils with fists at the end. The train was slowly increasing in speed, Alec and Magnus had to brace themselves so that they didn’t lose their footing. With the speed increase, the train passed under a pole that knocked a large chunk of Mites away from the pile, firing them out towards Alec and Magnus. The latter of the two who cast a ward, causing the Mites to bounce away from the two of them.

The Conductor put his hands back together and smashed his cane towards the floor.

“This is not exactly the venue I had hoped to end both of your lives in.” The Conductor boomed. “So…” A portal opened up further down the tracks and the train was headed towards it. “In but a few moments we shall arrive.” He cackled to himself. “Don’t worry. I won’t hurt you just yet. But my Mites, however.” He laughed again before raising his hands. Alec loaded an arrow onto his bow and Magnus flew sparks from his hands. Their attempts were both in vain as the tendrils of Mites surrounded and trapped the both of them. “This will do, for now.” He sneered before separating the Mites behind him. “Oh look, we’re here.” The Conductor said before the sky and all the land around them was engulfed in darkness. A shroud of purple cloud appeared around the two of them and the floor seemed to disappear from under them.

“Magnus?” Alec turned to try and look at Magnus. And Magnus did the same for Alec, called his name and attempted to find him.

\----

Alec felt his feet touch a solid floor. The shroud of purple disappeared from around him. His saw that he was stood on a white marble floor. He looked around where he was, the sky and entire surrounding area was comprised entirely of deep purple clouds, with flashes of lightning pushing through. Alec felt his breathing quicken as he circled the spot. He could see nothing.

“Magnus?!” Alec called again. “Magnus?!” He was still clutching his bow in his hand, he felt around his pockets for his stele and there was so sign of it. “Damn it, not again.” While he was feeling around, he found the pouch that Magnus gave him of the projectile countering powder.

A train whistle sounded in the distance behind Alec. It sounded a few more time, each time getting louder and louder. The ground began to shake underneath Alec’s feet as a train thundered passed him. The train circled around him, slowing down, creating a ring and trapping him. It took him a moment to realise that the train was The Grand Siren that Magnus and himself had been travelling on. Alec could feel his legs and breathing shaking. The train let out one final, deafening, whistle as steam billowed out from the very first carriage.

“This is it, Alec.” The voice of The Conductor boomed through the area that Alec was trapped in. “Everything will end for you, here.” The Conductor stepped out from the steam that had fallen to the ground.

“Who- who are you?” Alec said, gripping the bow tighter.

“Why, I’m The Conductor, the same person I’ve always been.” The Conductor’s cane looked to be topped with a flashing ruby, the same colour as the suit he was wearing that was fitted to his short, round body. “Now,” he said, before Alec had the chance to speak again, “this area, is about fifty yards.” Alec found himself frozen in place. “So, we’ve got a little space to tango.” He laughed deeply.

“But why are you doing any of this?” Alec’s voice almost broke during his question.

“Revenge. Simple and sweet.”

“Revenge? Revenge for what? What did I ever do to you?”

“You tore MY FAMILY APART!” The Conductor boomed, slamming the jewel of his cane against the floor, sounding a lightning crash. “You. Shadowhunter. You and your friends. You kill and kill without thinking. Without considering who you’re killing.” The Conductor’s face was bright red. “You’ve killed, countless demons. Like we’re NOTHING. You killed my brother!”

“Shadowhunters don’t kill just for the sake of it, though. We only do that for the sake of protecting Mundanes. So, I’m sorry, but if we killed your brother, then he was doing something wrong, hurting people.”

“Be QUIET!” The Conductor’s white hair had fallen out of place with a few strands falling onto his sweating face. “You. You and your friends destroyed my family. I am going to kill you, but first I am going to beat you half to death and force you to watch while I kill Magnus.” The Conductor laughed in a low tone. “And I’ll make you watch.” Alec took a deep breath and readied his bow.

“There is no way, that I would ever let you hurt Magnus.” He said in a gruff voice. His bow began to glow as he pulled back the string and fired an arrow towards The Conductor who disappeared into a cloud of purple smoke, the same colour as the sky before reappearing in the same spot.

“It’s going to take a little more than your silly little toy to hurt me, young man.” The red colour lessened on his face. He raised his cane, the ruby fully shining. He aimed the cane towards Alec. Alec was fully aware that he wouldn’t have enough time to dive out of the way of whatever The Conductor was about to fire at him. “After your fight, out in the snow, Alec. I figure that you could use a little heat.” Sparks of fire began bursting out of the gem on his cane as he laughed. Alec backed up a few steps and fired off two arrows that seemingly melted as they made contact The Conductor who did nothing but laugh.

The first arrow Alec fired was flying up in the air, back around down towards The Conductor with a sparkling trail behind it. Sparks from The Conductor’s cane were flying out of control as a large fireball fired out from it.

Alec held up his bow in an attempt to defend himself from the fireball. He could feel the heat searing against his skin as the fireball lurched towards him. The sound of The Conductor laughing maniacally could be heard before the arrow Alec had fired came down and pierced directly into the fireball, the sparkling white trail engulfing it completely before consuming it into nothing.

“What?!” The Conductor growled. “How in the HELL did you stop that?” He stomped towards Alec, shaking the ground as he walked. He flipped the cane upside down in his hand as he walked and pulled the end of the cane off, revealing a blade. “I don’t need magic to beat you, Alec. I can beat you with this just fine.” The Conductor lifted the sword and brought it down with immense force on Alec, who held his bow up to stop the blade. The bow began to glow again as it collided with the blade. “You’re a bit of a pest, aren’t you?” As he lifted the blade back up, Alec seized the opportunity to kick The Conductor in the chest. His boot connected with the man’s chest and seemingly stopped in place.

“What?” Alec said quietly as The Conductor laughed.

“It’s going to take more than that.” He geared up for another swing of the sword as Alec jumped back and readied and fired an arrow that The Conductor slashed away with his sword. He swung the sword at Alec again. Connecting with the bow again that lit up even brighter. 

The Conductor swung and swung again, with every strike being blocked by Alec’s bow. Alec’s bow had gotten to the point to where it looked as if it was about to explode if it were to be hit one final time. The Conductor brought down another strike, ever stronger than before that Alec blocked again. His bow, began letting out spears of light from the body of the bow.

“Wait a second?” The Conductor began. He back away from Alec. “What are you doing? How are you doing that?” Shards of light exploded out of the bow. Alec held it out as far from his body as far as possible without letting go of it. Alec turned away and shielded his eyes with his free arm. An explosion sounded right before him as the light faded and Alec turned back.

The Conductor was laid on his back, approximately ten yards from Alec, with smoke rising up from his body. Alec noticed that The Conductor had dropped his cane. Alec, realising the opportunity, ran for the cane while he slung the bow over his shoulder, only for the cane to move a few feet out of his way as he grabbed it. He brought his foot down, trapping the cane before picking it up. Meanwhile, The Conductor has risen back to his feet, steam still emanating from his body that was now shaking with anger.  
“How dare you?!” He boomed. “Not only are you a murderer, but you’re a thief as well.” Alec took the chance to pull an arrow from his quiver and held in the same hand with the cane. “Give me that back!”

The Conductor raised his left hand, causing the cane and the arrow the fly out of Alec’s hand, towards his enemy. The cane flipped around, so the blade was facing away from The Conductor as it landed in his hand. The arrow, however, remained in the same position and landed in his chest. The Conductor began slamming the ruby on the cane against the ground repeatedly, causing increasingly intense tremors and knocking Alec off his feet. The Conductor raised both arms and the sky began to stir.

“I’ve had enough of you!” The Conductor boomed. Lightning began crashing all around them, stirring shards of marble around the arena, destroying the ground even further. One final bolt of lightning, far more intense than any before crashed into the ground between the two of them. A large hold was created in the ground with the marble slowly falling into it. The hole expanded, pieces of the floor breaking all around Alec until all that was left was the two pieces of ground that he and The Conductor were stood on. “This is where you’re going to be trapped.” The Conductor cackled. “Unless, your dear little Magnus is going to be able to stop me.” 

Alec began to speak but was interrupted by the deafening screech of the train’s whistle. Steam billowed out from the train, consuming Alec’s vision as it began moving again and unravelling itself from the circle it had created before disappearing into nothingness in the purple clouds. As the steam passed, Alec realised that The Conductor has disappeared and he was stranded on the final piece of marble, surrounded by the purple flashing clouds. Nowhere to go.

Magnus was his only hope.


	11. Together or Apart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec and Magnus finish up their adventure aboard The Grand Siren in one final fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone. This is the final chapter of this fic. I'm so excited that I can finally share it with the world and say that I actually finished a project that I started I'm so proud of myself.
> 
> However, as usual - let me know what you guys think :D

Magnus found himself alone. Stood on a white marble floor, surrounded by purple clouds, in a location not too dissimilar to Alec. He heard the same sound of The Grand Siren whistling, getting louder. The train surrounded him, just like it did with Alec, forming the same circle around him and leaving a trail of steam behind it. Steam that created a wall down on the ground before him that quickly dissipated, revealing The Conductor stood there with an arrow jammed into his chest. The Conductor exhaled heavily as he yanked the arrow from his chest and threw it aside.

“Your little boyfriend was quite troublesome, Magnus. And I’m afraid that you’re never going to see each other, unless you can kill me.” Magnus raised both of his hands, a red aura sparking from them. “It’s a shame, really. You two do go well together.”

“You know, you never told me who you are. And I would really appreciate it since I feel like we’ve met before.” Magnus said, readying his stance. “And there’s absolutely no way you’re going to get Alec. Together or apart, we won’t lose.”

“What does it really matter, right now? And as for your boy toy… I already saw him. He’s a little… stranded, shall we say?” The Conductor flipped his cane, the bottom was re-attached and the blade hidden and formed a circle that opened up in front of Magnus, showing him Alec stood on the floating piece of marble. “I already fought him, Magnus.” The Conductor said, glowering before shutting the circle off.

“Is that why you had the arrow in your chest?” Magnus shot a burst of red energy from his hands, only to have The Conductor disappear in a cloud of purple smoke before reappearing. The Conductor sighed as he reappeared.

“Here’s the thing about Alec.” He tapped the cane on the ground. “His bow. It had a pretty serious enchantment on it. When I hit it, it basically exploded into a ball of light. I assume that that was your doing?” The Conductor shot a fireball from the ruby of his cane. Magnus, blocking it with a ward.

“You’d be right about that. Basically, just a simple reflection enchantment. Nothing much. And now, I’d like to know - was it you who was trying to gather all those items for this… deadly weapon?”

“It was. And as I assume you’ve realised that Jennifer was trying to gather them for me until you and Alec, stopped her, shall we say? But don’t worry about it, I managed to gather them all myself anyway.” The Conductor flicked the cane towards Magnus, a ring of light being released from the ruby. The ring trapping Magnus in place. He dropped his cane onto the floor “And since I do have all the items, I figured I can take the chance to do what I was planning on doing.” The Conductor reached into the pocket of his bright red jacket before pulling out a couple of powders. “Gold and steel.” He dropped the powders onto his cane, that glowed briefly before dimming again. He reached into the pocket on the other side revealing a ring to Magnus. “This belong to my brother, the one you killed.”

“That’s the prized possession…”

“It is.”

“But what about the soul. I don’t see how you could just have a soul in that jacket of yours.”

“While that is true Magnus, I have a question for you. Just how many years have you lived?”

“Is that why you’ve trapped me? You plan to kill me? Because you think my soul is weary?” The ring holding Magnus shattered suddenly. “Here’s the thing. I’m not planning on dying anytime soon. Especially not to someone who won’t even tell me who they are.”

“Names don’t really matter.” The Conductor dropped the ring onto his cane, causing it to glow again briefly. He lifted it back up into his hand before pointing it to Magnus. “Let’s end this.” He lifted his cane and the sky began to rumble.

Lightning crashed down between Magnus and The Conductor, shattering parts of the ground. The rubble of the marble falling onto the ground. The Conductor jumped backwards, firing fireballs towards Magnus who threw them out of the way of him. The fireballs crashing into the carriages of The Grand Siren. Magnus looked around, seeing where all of the marble landed from the lightning. He moved his arms in a circular manor gathering the shards before firing them towards The Conductor. The Conductor, too slow, was unable to move out of the way of the shards and was hit by each one.

Another deafening screech sounded from the train behind Magnus, dropping him to his knees and grabbing the lapel of his jacket. The Conductor held up his cane, pulling the steam from the train towards him.

“First you kill my brother. Now, you’re trying to ruin my plan.” The Conductor boomed as he aimed the cane towards Magnus, firing the steam towards him. Still on his knees, the only thing Magnus had time to do was throw the blue powder in his pocket, thickening his skin and creating a protective layer around him.

The steam consumed him completely. Magnus could hear The Conductor cackling outside of the steam. Magnus stood up, confused. He had completely expected to at least get somewhat burned by the heat of the steam, yet he felt nothing. He took the opportunity to begin gathering the steam the fire back. The stream that was being fired at him was seemingly never ending, which was perfect for him to collect it back and send back towards The Conductor.

The stream ended and Magnus was holding a large ball of the concentrated steam above his head. The Conductor was still stood in the same place.

“How in the hell?” The Conductor began smashing his cane into the ground repeatedly while screaming. Magnus took the opportunity to fire the ball of steam towards The Conductor mid tantrum, launching him back towards a carriage of The Grand Siren. The ball exploding and dissipating as The Conductor slid down and hit the ground. “You and your friends.” The Conductor panted as he stood up, steam rising from his body. “You and your friends, have been nothing but a plague to me.” He slammed his cane against the ground, sending a shockwave across the ground and firing Magnus off his feet. “My family.” The Conductor continued. “We were happy. My brother. You and your friends killed him!”

Magnus force himself back onto his feet.

“I can only tell you the same thing that Alec told you. If he did kill them, then he must have been dangerous. Shadowhunters protect the Mundanes. So, your brother must have been doing something to put people in danger. And how am I meant to feel bad if I don’t even know who it is you’re talking about?”

“ABBADON!” Magnus’ eyes widened.

“The greater demon? I didn’t know thry had any relatives.”

“And what’s wrong with that? Last time they ran into your friends, they almost got Alec. Now after I sort you out here, I can finish the job that he didn’t manage to.” The Conductor began to walk slowly towards Magnus, cane in hand. “Now the steam. That was a neat trick, I don’t know how you managed that, but that is the last trick that you pull on me.” He tossed his cane at Magnus, knocking him back off his feet.

As he hit the ground, Magnus felt the glass bottle in his jacket press against his shirt. He had completely forgotten that he left the bottle on his person. He stood back up, feeling the impact of the cane on his chest, he pulled the bottle out from his jacket pocket.

“And just what are you planning on doing with that?” Magnus had no clue what he was going to do with the powder in the bottle, he had no idea whether it would even do anything if he shattered the bottle. But with the amount of volatile powders that were mixed together, something was bound to happen.

Magnus wound up to throw the bottle towards The Conductor who threw his cane towards Magnus again, shattering the bottle above Magnus’ head, the powder showering down on him.

“What a shame, Magnus.” The Conductor laughed as Magnus coughed in the multi coloured shroud of powders. “And to think, even Alec put up a better fight than you have.” He began to walk towards Magnus as the ground began to shake beneath the both of them. “Now what have you done?”

Chunks of marble seemed to fall out of the clouds as the shroud of powder began sparking around Magnus. The Conductor looked up towards to clouds to see that larger chunks of marble were falling through the clouds, landing around him. The Conductor grunted to himself, blasting chunks of marble away from him and towards Magnus. The chunks of marble sparked against the shroud around Magnus which seemed to act as a barrier against the projectiles.

The shroud began to pop around Magnus and began to expand around him. A large chunk of marble fell out of the clouds and shattered on the ground revealing Alec on the ground. Both Magnus and The Conductor noticed that Alec was there.

“Oh, now how the hell did that happen?” The Conductor said, aiming his cane towards Alec’s unconscious body.

“What did I tell you?” Magnus said, his voice lower and sounding almost distorted. “You’re not hurting Alec.” Magnus held his hand out, firing a projectile made of the powders towards The Conductor, knocking the cane out of his hand. The Conductor turned to Magnus, the powders had clung to his skin and his cat eyes revealed.

“Now this. This is something special.” The Conductor said, turning the cane towards Magnus. Firing off two fireballs, deflected by Magnus who held up quick wards that were imbued with the powder, amplifying their power. The Conductor growled.

\---

Alec felt himself come to and the light coming back into his eyes. He found himself laid out by a wheel of one of the carriages. The golden monster loomed over him, far higher than he remembered the wheels being. He picked up his bow and quiver up off of the floor next to him as he stood. His bones burned as he moved, a feeling he was more than happy to try and forget and as quickly as possible. Turning himself around, he saw Magnus and The Conductor firing projectiles at one another, Magnus still covered in the powder shroud.

Taking no time to think, Alec took an arrow out of the quiver and aimed it towards The Conductor. The tension of the bowstring increased as he pulled the string back, towards him. The world around him slowed, he took one final breath and released the arrow. It flew through the air, directly towards The Conductor and planting itself firmly in the side of his skull.

Both Magnus and The Conductor stopped firing at one another and turned towards Alec.

“Oh…” The Conductor started, practically frothing at the mouth. He pulled the arrow from his skull and his blood spilled out onto the floor. The red exploding out onto the cold marble floor. “Now you’ve really done it.” His face, the same shade of red as his blood on the floor. Breathing heavily, he removed the cover of his cane, revealing the blade again.

Without missing a beat, before either Magnus or Alec had the chance to move, The Conductor drove the blade into Magnus’ stomach.

“No!” Alec dropped the bow and immediately ran over towards Magnus, who was now being completely consumed by the powder. 

The powder sparked a few more times and had spread onto The Conductor’s arm, holding him in place in front of Magnus. Alec tried touching Magnus but was immediately thrown back off his feet.

“Alec?” Magnus’ voice echoed out from the powder, distorted. The powder began to explode around Magnus, with each explosion getting larger and more deadly.

“What are you doing?” The Conductor asked, his face bone white and head still bleeding. “How could you do this to me? I was supposed to kill you both!” The powder completely consumed The Conductor alongside Magnus.

The expanded powder shroud slowly lifted itself into the air before separating into two. One cloud holding Magnus, the other holding The Conductor. Alec’s legs froze in place, he couldn’t bring himself to move, in awe of the clouds. Both of the clouds were sparking, clouds of powder falling to the ground with the explosions, explosions that were slowly becoming more intense.

An unfamiliar scream emanated from the cloud on the left. Alec was unsure who it came from and with the distortion it caused to Magnus’ voice previously, there was no way to know who was in which cloud. Alec readied an arrow and aimed it at the left cloud, only to have a second, unfamiliar scream came from the right-hand cloud. Both the clouds moved slowly into one another and merged into one, overbearing cloud that cast a shadow down over Alec who dropped the arrow to the floor.

Piles of the powder cloud began accumulating on the ground in a murky brown colour from the explosions. Alec began to notice silhouettes formed in the cloud as it thinned out. The cloud’s explosions began to shake the floor and the silhouettes began to get thrown around inside. With one final earth shattering explosion, the cloud completely dissipated and threw both Magnus and The Conductor onto the ground.

“Magnus!” Alec sprinted over towards Magnus’ body and knelt down next to him. He put his arms around Magnus, lifting his head into his lap. “No, no, no, no. Magnus. Not now, we still need to get outta here.” Alec looked down towards Magnus’ stomach, looking at the wound. Magnus’ blood, spreading over his jacket.

“You two…” The Conductor said, breathing heavily. Remnants of the powder remained on his body. Blue sparks came from the patches of the powder on his skin. “You two… are ruining everything. But Magnus there.” The Conductor laughed weakly. “Magnus is going to die. And that’s good enough for me.” He coughed, powder spewing from his mouth before he fell, face down, onto the ground and was fully consumed by the powder.

Alec turned back to Magnus, tears began to roll down his face and fell onto Magnus’.

“Magnus, please. Come on.” Alec held Magnus’ body tighter in his arms. “You can not die now, Magnus. Not here.” Alec’s breathing became less controlled. He turned his head away from Magnus, looking around the arena in hopes that there was something that he could use to save Magnus. All there was in the arena was the remnants of the powder, shards of marble and the train.

The remnants of the powder on Magnus’ skin began to stir, the colours all separating. Blues, greens, golds began to float above Magnus’ face and in front of Alec’s. The powders formed a ring in front Alec, the powders still spinning. Without warning, the ring attached itself to Alec’s face, cutting off all vision. He moved one hand away from Magnus and up to his face, but no matter how much he moved his hand, he couldn’t reach the powder on his face.

His hand broke away from his face as the train let out a deafening screech. There was nothing else in the world Alec could hear. Both his vision and hearing completely drowned out. The screeching continued as the colours of the powder rushed around his vision.

\---

Alec heard a scream coming from his left. Looking up from Magnus, he realised he was knelt down on a train platform with the warlock in his lap. The scream coming from a woman pointing towards Magnus, who still looked to be bleeding profusely from the wound. He looked around to see the moon was out and a crowd that had gathered around him.

“Help us.” Alec said, tears still rolling down his face. “Please.” Alec was speaking to no one in particular; his plea was aimed towards the crowd of people on the platform around him. “Call an ambulance or something. Anything! Please!”

“The temple.” Alec heard a woman in the crowd say. “If you can get him up to the temple, he should be fine. Are any of the monks around?”

“O-okay, hurry. Please, will someone help, then?” Alec pleaded, turning his head back down to Magnus. “Look, someone’s going to come help you. And you’re gonna get through this and you’ll be okay. I promise.”

A man dressed in a long, deep purple robe walked up to Alec and held a hand out towards him. Alec remained in place, not knowing what he was wanting. A second man in the same coloured robe walked up to Alec and knelt down beside him.

“Can either of you help me?” Alec asked, his breathing ragged.

“But of course, child.” The first man spoke with a calm voice. The two men had very similar faces. They both had small, faces, full of wrinkles. “Come to the temple with the both of us and we can make sure that your friend survives – and stop the bleeding.”

The two men stood at the head and feet of Magnus and knelt down, two wooden handles materialised either side of Magnus as the men grabbed hold of them and stood back up, forming a forest green stretcher underneath Magnus.

“Wait- who are you?” Alec asked the men.

“They’re monks.” The same woman who spoke earlier said. “They’re up at the temple usually.”

“Temple- what temple?” Alec said without looking at the person talking.

“The Ashen Temple? Did you even know you were in Ash Town?”

Before he had the chance to respond to the woman, Alec stood back up and began following the monks through Ash Town. The monks walked faster than Alec would have expected, he didn’t have enough time to properly look around and take in the town. The monks walked past a large, marble fountain lined with fairy lights in the water. They slowed down to begin walking up a set of stairs, Alec looked up to the top of the stairs to see a grandiose temple, The Ash Temple. The very temple that Alec and Magnus had originally set out to visit in the beginning of their vacation. Alec heard murmuring and gasps from at the bottom of the steps as he noticed a crowd gathered.

Alec rushed over to the side of the stretcher as the men walked through the door into the temple. He kept repeating ‘you’re going to be okay’ and ‘we’re going to get through this’ to himself and the Magnus as they walked.

The interior of the temple was just as grandiose as the exterior. Immaculate stone pillars the stretched from the floor all the way up to the ceiling that formed a walkway to the back of the temple where a stone throne stood. Moonlight leaked into the temple from the arched window above the doorway, bathing the room in the light.

The monks walked Magnus and the stretcher between two pillars, into a side room with a raised stone bench in the centre of the room, with various cupboards lining the walls of the room. They placed Magnus down on the bend, the stretcher dematerialising from underneath him.

“Can you help him?” Alec asked, pulling his jacket tighter around him, his breathing still broken. The first monk walked around to Alec and pushed him back a few steps.  
“We will do our best, but we need you to stand back while we work.” The first monk turned his head to see that the other one was walking towards Magnus with a wooden bowl filled with plants and leaves.

Alec stepped back, he moved his hands behind his head. His eyes were still filled with tears, with the occasional one rolling down his face. He felt completely helpless, watching the monks grind up various plants, walking back and forth from cupboards and back to Magnus. One of the monks removed Magnus’ jacket and placed it on the floor by the raised bench while the other one sprinkle one of the powders over Magnus’ wound, causing a sparkle to appear over it.

No longer able to stand, Alec moved himself to a corner of the room and collapsed, sitting and laying his head against the wall. It suddenly hit him how tired he was. He was completely drained and fell asleep almost instantaneously.

“It looks like he’s fallen asleep.” He heard one of the monks say.

“That’s probably for the best. This will take a little time. Perhaps by the time we are finished he will have woken back up.”

“I suppose at the very least we should let him know when we’ve done all we can do.”

“I agree, brother, but we shouldn’t stray away from this. This warlock is still bleeding.”

\---

Alec felt a tap on his shoulder causing his eyes to shoot open. Bleary eyed, he blinked a few times before standing back up. He stood himself back up, he noticed that he was still in the corner of the side room in the temple with one of the monks he previously saw stood before him.

“Wha-?” Alec started.

“We’ve finished our work.” The monk said, calmly. “We’ve stopped the bleeding and the warlock is now in a stable condition.”

“W-wait. Does- does that mean he’s going to be-?” Alec’s breathing became ragged again.

“As long as he’s careful for the next few weeks, he should make a full recovery.” 

The monk moved out of the way so Alec could see the rest of the room. Magnus was still in the same place, on the stone bench and visibly breathing. Alec practically ran across the room to reach Magnus.

“Magnus? Magnus?” Alec leaned over Magnus before looking him up and down. His shirt had been removed and a white bandage placed over the wound. “Hey, Magnus?” The warlock groaned and coughed a couple of times as Alec placed his hand on his chest.

“Ow…” Magnus uttered.

“Oh my- I’m sorry, Magnus.”

“I did tell you, he needs to be careful.” The monk said. Magnus raised a hand and waved weakly.

“I’ve… I’ve come back from worse.” Magnus spoke with the same strength as his wave. He moved his eyes to look into Alec’s. “Did you save me again, Alexander?” Alec’s head dropped and a smile painted itself over his face.

“No.” Alec shook his head, tears in his eyes again. “You saved both of us with- whatever you did to The Conductor in that strange arena.”

“So…” Magnus coughed. “So, let’s call it even?” Alec laughed, nodding his head. “Where are we, Alec?”

One of the monks walked over to the bench and answered for Alec. “You’re in the Ashen Temple. In Ash Town.” The monk sighed. “It is strange, a woman came in to check on the both of you, she said that you both just appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Alec said. “We’re here, and Magnus is okay. So, I don’t care what some woman had to say.” Alec laughed to himself and turned back to Magnus.

“I’m sorry, Alec.”

“Sorry? Sorry for what?”

“All of this?” Magnus coughed again, remnants of the powder coming out with the cough.

“Magnus… I don’t care. About any of this.” Alec sighed. “As long as you’re okay, I’m happy.” Magnus smiled as he heard those words.

“Did I hear… that we’re in the Ashen Temple?” Alec nodded to Magnus. “We made it?” Alec took a second to gather himself before answering.

“Yes. I don’t think that it was in the way you’d have liked, but yes. We made it, Magnus.” Magnus sighed down from the bench. “Wh-what? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, Alec… It’s just. I didn’t want this for us.”

“I know you didn’t, but there was no way you could have known any of this could have happened. So… so just stay here, I’ll stay with you, and I’ll make sure that you get better.”

“I would advise that the warlock not do anything excessive for a while.” One of the monks said to Alec before he could continue. “The wound may begin bleeding again if you move around too much or perform any strenuous activities.”

“Strenuous activities?” Alec asked. Magnus laughed weakly before coughing a few times at Alec.

“The two of you may stay here until the warlock makes a proper recovery. For now, however, I shall leave you two alone.”

\---

Birds sang and flew around the fountain as sun glistened through the window. Magnus and Alec walked out of the side room and into the main hall of the temple. The temple was a completely different place during the day, the doors were open to the public and people were milling around the main hall and looking at the artwork hanging around on the walls.

Magnus and Alec walked out of the temple and out into the town. The sky was clear and the gentle chatter of people rose up the stairs over the rolling of the water from the fountain. Alec finally could see the town, no tall buildings, plenty of bustle and yet the town didn’t feel busy. Water rolled out of passages from the fountain in tiny channels in the stone floorings that lead to the outskirts of the town.

Magnus looked down to the town square and noticed a café around the edge of the fountain. Magnus took Alec’s hand as they walked to the café, in a terracotta building, the same colour as the ones from Araelia.

“Since we only have until tonight.” Magnus said, wincing and placing his free hand over the bandaged wound. “I’d like to make this day about you, since you saved me.” He leant over to Alec and pressed their lips, softly, together. “So, tell me, Alec. We have today, where do you want go?”

“Nowhere.” Alec said, his voice soft. “I want to stay here – with you. So I don't care."


End file.
